The Bishop of Bath and Wellspresented a Petition from Shepton Mallet, complaining of Distress, and praying for Relief. The right rev. Prelate supported the prayer of the Petition, and vouched for the correctness of its statements. By every principle of humanity and justice that House was bound, he said, to institute an inquiry into the causes of the distress, for the legislature should treat the people as a father would treat his children, Sound policy also demanded it, for by doing so, the legislature would earn the gratitude of the people. It was impossible for any language of his to do justice to the heroic fortitude with which they had submitted to their distress; 1122 uttering no sound of complaint, and being guilty of no breach of the law. Their conduct strengthened their claims to be heard, and he could not conceive it possible that an inquiry by their Lordships should not lead to some means of giving them relief. Such a supposition was a satire upon legislature. He had, on a former occasion, presented a similar petition to their Lordships, and had accompanied it by a statement of the distress which existed in his own immediate neighbourhood, and sorry he was to observe, that there the distress was unabated. He felt it his duty to be on the spot, to do what an individual could to relieve the distress; but he must say, it required a more powerful arm than his.
§ Petition laid on the Table.
Earl Beauchamppresented a Petition from Worcester, signed by 2,800 persons, complaining of Distress, and praying for a revision of the Currency, and Parliamentary Reform.
§ Earl Stanhopebore testimony to the general existence of the distress complained of, and read extracts from a letter, which, he said, was written by one of the cleverest men he was acquainted with, to justify his opinion. One-third of the unentailed estates in Scotland, he was informed, might be found in the market; and Scotland, instead of being prosperous, as had been stated, was in great distress. The people about Glasgow, he was informed, were living chiefly on provisions imported from Ireland; and on a line of road near Berwick, there were several estates unoccupied. The distress at Leeds had been denied in the teeth of a petition signed by 50,000 persons; and the writer of the letter informed him, that the statements of that petition were too true. The increase of Tolls, which had been quoted in another place as a sign of prosperity, had no foundation; in fact, during the last four years the Tolls in the neighbourhood of Birmingham had decreased from 3,990l. to 2,809l. The increase which had been referred to of licensed traders, was also a proof of distress; for people who could not live by their usual business took out licenses to sell tea and tobacco, in the hopes of eking out their scanty means of subsistence. As to Birmingham not being distressed, the number of paupers who received relief in January 1829, was 2,103, and in January last, 3,276, being an increase of 1,173. 1123 Much of this distress was undoubtedly owing to the want of protection, by which the English artizan was exposed to foreign competition. He had never attributed, however, the distress of the country to Free Trade exclusively: it resulted, he had no doubt, from a combination of causes, of which the Currency appeared to him the principal cause, judging as he did from the universality of depression which had existed since the operation of the bill of 1819. The noble Earl then took a brief review of the state of the currency between 1774 and Mr. Peel's bill of 1819, contending that before that measure was passed, silver was always the standard of value, and that that measure was founded in delusion; that none of those who were advocates for a return to a metallic currency had contemplated that it would occasion a depression of more than four or five percent in prices; that Mr. Ricardo had stated, that if the return to a metallic currency should produce a depression of twelve per cent, the attempt would be one of great peril; but if he could contemplate such a reduction as twenty-five per cent, from a return to a metallic currency, he should consider the attempt an act of insanity. The noble Earl, after pointing out a variety of ways by which the defects of the present system might be remedied, the principal of which were making silver at its present standard a legal tender to any amount, and allowing the issue of a small-note circulation by licensed bankers, they giving security cither in land or bullion for the amount of paper issued, proceeded to state, that in France, in Austria, and Prussia, the governments had given encouragement to paper issues, by which great benefit had been derived to those countries. In France, a bank on the Scotch principle had been established, which issued notes for 20-francs; and in Prussia the government had issued notes of the value of 5s. These measures had been productive of great benefit, and nothing, he contended, could relieve the distress of this country but some similar measures. He hoped that their Lordships would have an opportunity at no distant day of discussing the currency question at length, for it was impossible that it could be suffered to rest. His Lordship moved that the Petition be laid on the Table.
The Marquis of Butedenied that distress existed so generally in the country as the noble Earl (Stanhope) seemed to 1124 believe. There was distress he admitted, but neither so severe nor so general as was said; and wherever he went he heard from every one who spoke of the state of the country, that "the worst was past." With respect to Scotland, he could state, from his own knowledge, that the condition of the labouring poor was not so bad as many had represented, and he must deny that one-third of the unentailed estates of that country were in the market for sale. He admitted that the number of estates at present offered for sale in Scotland was greater than usual, because land was a better medium of investment there than in England, and a considerable amount of British capital was employed in that way. The reason why so many were in the market together was this,—that those about, to become purchasers were advised to wait, to try whether a lower price than at present demanded might not be accepted.
§ Earl Stanhope, in reply, said no doubt land was a better mode of investment in Scotland; but it was not a little singular that, under those circumstances, so large a number of landed proprietors in that country should be anxious to sell their estates. He repeated there was great distress in the country, and in one county (Worcester) there existed great irritation and exasperation amongst the lower orders against the higher, and if some remedy was not found to remove the distress, that exasperation would increase to an extent to be dreaded.
§ Petition to he on the Table.