§ Earl Greysaid, he had a Petition to offer, which purported to have emanated from a Meeting of the County of Northumberland, and to be signed by the High Sheriff. He believed, however, that in point of form it could be only received as the petition of the individual subscriber, the House not sanctioning, in a legal sense, that the act of the High Sheriff was, in this respect, necessarily that of the county at large. It was right he should state that this petition was, as he had understood, adopted unanimously by the meeting; but it had been left at his house, where he found it upon his arrival in town, unaccompanied by any other communication or instruction than that which the petition itself conveyed. He knew it to be a fact, however, that there had been a county meeting in Northumberland; he knew it to be a fact that the High Sheriff was requested to 215 transmit such a petition, and also that it was to have been sent to himself: he therefore could have no doubt in tendering this petition to the House as a genuine document, although he had received no communication on the subject of it. The petitioners begged leave to state the great distress of the Shipping-interest, and that notwithstanding the privations which they endured, at no former period were the people more peaceable and obedient to the laws. They stated several causes, or combinations of causes, to which they ascribed the prevailing distress. Whatever those causes really were, one thing appeared clear,—that the people were evidently unable to bear the pressure of taxation which now weighed upon them. They referred to promises contained in the King's Speech at the opening of the Session of Parliament, and expressed their confident reliance upon the wisdom of their Lordships to provide a remedy for their grievances. They likewise prayed the House to revise the different measures which had been adopted since the year 1819, relative to the currency, and they recommended, in the strongest terms, economy in the administration of the national affairs. Having discharged his duty in presenting this petition, and in thus stating its prayer, he did not know that it was incumbent upon him to say any thing more, except that, from his local knowledge of the county of Northumberland, he could say, that the distress there was very great, though perhaps not so great as it was at that moment in other parts of the kingdom. He ought to state his belief, that a degree of distress so heavy and great must proceed from some general and pervading cause: he had at the same time no hesitation in saying, that he did not go the length of the petitioners, in wishing to see a revision of all the prominent measures which had passed since 1819. They did not state in what particular way they wished this to be done, and in the absence of any instructions he could not explain precisely what were their views. Whether the cause of this distress were capable of any remedy, and whether that remedy ought to be a revision of the currency, he was not prepared to say; but at the same time he had no doubt that the change made in the currency in 1819, or rather the difficulties which were found to have arisen out of it, did, in point of fact, press hard upon all the manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural classes; for 216 they had to contend with the immense burthen of an enormous debt, in great part contracted in a depreciated currency, while the interest of it now was made payable in a greatly improved medium of value. When he adverted to these transactions, he did not mean to exempt himself from blame, as he was in Parliament at the time when these measures were enacted. His present opinion certainly was, that the Act of 1819 was passed without a sufficient foresight of the consequences which must accrue from it; and nobody had anticipated the extent to which they had occurred. Whether the mischief was capable of any remedy now, he knew not; nor would he be the person who would suggest even, much less propose, any measure which would incur the suspicion of an intention to impair that faith on which the public credit was founded. In turning his mind to this subject, he had considerable doubts whether they could (as some persons wished) revise the Act of 1819, in the hope of reestablishing the previous state of things; but still he thought that another branch of the subject might be so modified as to mete out immense relief to the general distress which so unhappily prevailed,—for instance, an admission of the circulation of small notes, with a proper and well-arranged system of security, and a guard against the acknowledged abuses which took place in 1825. At present, in looking at the bank-note system of the kingdom, it was impossible to avoid being-struck with the anomaly, that while small bank notes were in full circulation in Ireland and Scotland, they were interdicted in England; it did appear to him a still further anomaly, that in his own county the Scottish small notes should be in circulation for twenty miles within the borders of Northumberland. The fact was, that it was there the people in the neighbouring part of Scotland came to buy their coals and corn, and the purchaser could of course only give in exchange the circulating medium which he had a this command, and the people took it rather than lose their coal and corn market. This was done, he had reason to believe, with the connivance of Government, and in open defiance of the penalties of the law, which were in themselves somewhat singular also, for the penalty was to fall not upon the receiver, but on the payer. The people of the county afterwards sent the notes 217 for payment to places provided by the banks of Scotland for the exchange of their notes. The removal he thought, then, of the restriction upon the circulation of small notes in England, under proper safeguards, would afford extensive relief to those who were now suffering so severely throughout the country. He knew no way of proceeding better calculated to do present good, and avoid, as he had before said, even the suspicion of trenching upon the national faith, which never could be thought of except under the pressure of an uncontrollable and irresistible necessity which left no choice of any other alternative. He would not trouble their Lordships with any further observations in bringing up this petition.
§ Laid on the Table.