He agreed that, when in a Crisis of Real Difficulty and Danger (not such a crisis as his hon. friend had described), a magistrate who had been armed with extraordinary powers, for the preservation of public tranquillity, did step beyond the bounds of what was strictly legal, without exceeding the limits necessary for effecting his purpose, such a magistrate deserved protection, if the measures he pursued were proved or admitted to be essential to the public safety It was possible that such conduct might be at once illegal, and meritorious; its illegality might be extenuated by the necessity that called for it, and the magistrate might have acted meritoriously, in venturing on such an occasion to overstep bounds at his own risk.

He, in consequence, moved a vote of thanks to that body, with this limitation—"that those thanks were voted with reference to the conduct of the Bank in the late Crisis of Difficulty and Danger to the mercantile world".