§ Mr. Sykessaid, he rose to present a Petition from the Gentry, Clergy, Merchants, Bankers, and other inhabitants of Kingston-upon-Hull. The petitioners complained, he said, of the great distress, which they felt most heavily in common with many other parts of the country; and they earnestly prayed the House to institute an inquiry into its causes, with a view of giving them relief. They prayed, and in this part of their prayer he cordially concurred with them, thinking it the only effectual method of giving relief, for a large reduction of taxation. He was convinced that the state of the country made it necessary that the House should attend to this part of their prayer. He felt much indebted to the Government for the reduction already made, but he was convinced that greater reductions must be made, to meet the situation of the country. The petitioners also prayed for a revision of the laws respecting the currency, and in this part of their prayer he could not concur. He believed that the alterations which had been already made had caused a great deal of mischief, but further changes would, in his opinion, be still more detrimental. Looking at what had already taken place, 457 he thought the wisest course would be, to allow the laws respecting the currency to remain as they were.
§ Petition read, and to be printed.
§ Mr. Lockhart,in presenting a similar Petition from the inhabitants of a parish in the City of Oxford, observed, that in his opinion, much of the distress complained of by the petitioners, and by per-sons in all parts of the country, arose from a contraction of the currency, which had reduced the value of every species of property. Unfortunately, the contraction caused by the return to a metallic standard had been greatly aggravated by putting down the small notes issued by private bankers. The Government had, perhaps, a right to interfere with a corporation to which it guaranteed exclusive privileges, but it had no right to prohibit the circulation of any private securities which men in business were willing to accept. In his opinion, the putting down of the small notes was as gross a violation of the principles of free trade as any Minister could be guilty of, and the consequences of that measure had been, as he had before predicted, most disastrous. The widespread distress which had overwhelmed the land was one of its results. A better system of banking ought to have been introduced at the time, but nothing was done, except to make a slight alteration in the law relative to the Bank of England. At present, a solid system of banking was the great tiling that was wanted. We had gone abroad seeking connection and trade, and had so impoverished our own people that they had no longer the means to consume the commodities they were compelled to make. Perhaps it was impossible to go back to the war currency, but to persevere in our present line of conduct was, in the language of Mr. Burke, to be guilty of a most gigantic swindling transaction.
§ Petition to be printed.