The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-12 00:00:00

ported it with all the fervour, zeal, perspicuity, and elo-
quence with which their Lordships had been so long
familiar; but how was ho met? The first argument
with which he was met was that the property in question
had not been confiscated as property of a British subject
under the decree to which ho had adverted—an argu-
ment which he (Lord Lyndhurst) had already disposed
of. Another argument with which the Noble Lord was
met was that the cession had not been proved by any
deed. Now, in France there was no distinction
whatever between writings and deeds, as in this
country. That law was peculiar to this country.
The surrender was made according to the law of
the country where it took place which was quite suffi-
cient. But the third reason urged against the motion
was of a still more singular character, viz., that it
would cast ti Blur on the credit of the Commission and
the Privy Council, if they granted the inquiry. How-
ever. those arguments, assisted by others at the nature
of which he would not hint, prevailed on the House,
and the motion, though. supported by all the vigour and
manly eloquence of Sir J. Graham, was lost. A Noble
and Learned Lord opposite, who was then a Member
of the House of Commons (Lord Truro, we believe),
next undertook to bring the question before the House
of Commons, but he was put off from day to day by va-
rious causes, until the dissolution of Parliament, with-
out being able to effect his purpose, and, not having a seat
in the new Parliament, he ceased to be in a condition to
fulfil his engagement. Mr. Hill, the then Member for
Hull, next brought the question before the House, and had
made some progress in his statement, when the House
was counted out, and he was unable to bring it forward
again during the session. He renewed it, however, in a
subsequent session, and, in a House of nearly 200 Mem-
bers, not only obtained a hearing, but carried his motion
for a Committee. The case was argued before a Com-
mittee, day after day, by counsel on both sides; and the
inquiry had been nearly brought to a close, when an
objection was made on the part of the opponents of the
claim, that the documents produced had not been au-
thenticated by any British Minister or agent. The
session being then nearly at a close, the objection put a
stop to the inquiry; but the Committee, in their report
to the House, strongly urged the necessity of re-appoint-
ing the Committee in the next session. Parliament was
again dissolved, and Mr. Hill not being again returned
to the House, it became necessary to find some other
Member to move for the re-appointment of the Commit-
tee; but such was the general alarm at the nature and
complexity of the case, that it was necessary to go about
knocking from door to door to find some Member to un•
dertake ir. At last Mr. Warburton moved for the re-
appointment of the Committee; and, singular to say, was
met by the argument, on the part of an officer of the
Crown, that the Baron de Bode, who, for 20 years, bad
been persevering and active in every possible way to have
his case heard andadecided, had slept upon his case—an ,
argument which he maintained was, under all the cir-
cumstances, nothing's less than a piece of cruel mockery
and insult.—(Elear.) Mr. Warburton's motion having
been lost, the Baron next applied for a mandamus, calling
upon the Treasury to apply the money for the purpose
for which it 'nod been received. The mandamus was re-
fused, on the ground that the Lords of the Treasury held
the money as the servants of the Crown, and it was asked
how could a mandamus, which was an order of the Crown,
command the Crown to apply the money in any par-
ticular way. The counsel for the claimant then ap-
plied for a petition of right, supplicating her Majesty to
do justice; and—would their Lordships believe it—this
application was resisted on the ground that the money
was not in the hands of the Crown, but in the hands of
the Lords of the Treasury. At length, however, Lord
Cottenham, then Lord Chancellor, appointed four mom-
hers of the bar, and highly qualified, for the duty, to
examine into the matter. These gentlemen summoned
e jury of fourteen, twelve being necessary for a verdict,
and that jury pronounced an unanimous verdict, firading
all the facts which were asserted in the petition of right
to be true.—(Efear, hear.) The Attorney-General had
notice to attend this inquiry, and might have attended
it if he had thought proper, but he did not do so. Al-
though, however, he did not choose to attend the inquiry
he did that which by law he was of course perfectly en-
titled to do—he traversed the finding, and pleaded the
Statute of Limitations, which was fatal to the
claim. (Hear, hear.) The neat step was a
trial at bar, where the four Judges presided with a
special jury, and the result was to confirm the former
finding in every particular. All the facts which ho
had stated, then, had been proved by the concurrent
verdict of two juries ; but the Baron did not obtain
judgment in consequence of a clause in the Act which
nad been passed for the purpose of carrying out the
convention, which rendered it necessary that the claim
should first have been established by the adjudication of
the Commissioners. An appeal was next made to the
House of Lords, and the House of Lords confirmed that
decision. If he were to be asked where the money was
to come from to satisfy these claims, his answer was that
it was either in the hands of the Lords of the Treasury,
or that it had been applied to seine public service. It
the latter were the case the public, having reaped the
benefit of it, were bound to restore the money.—(Elear,
hear.) But he did not go se far as that. He asked
simply for a Committee to inquire into this case, and if
the Committee should confirm the statement which he
had made he should appeal to her Majesty's Govern-
ment to afford redress. He pressed this case in common
honesty and common fairness, not for the sake of the
claimant alone, but for the coaracter, honour, and dig-
nity cf this great country.—(Hear, hear).
The Earl of DER3Y said, that seldom, even in his
Noble and Learned Friend's earlier days, had it been
his pleasure to listen to detail's of great complication and
importance delivered with so complete a command of all
the circumstances of the case, unassisted, as their Lord-
ships had seen, by reference to a single note. as the
statement which they had just heard from his Noble and
Learned Friend—(Hear, hear)—and seldom, he ventured
to say, had the cause—he would not say of justice, be-
cause that would be to some extent prejudging the case
—but the cause of humanity and national honour, been
placed before them in language more eloquent and en-
forced by arguments more cogent than those which his
Noble and Learned Friend had with so much ability
employed.—(Hear, hear.) He was sure that to every-
one, on whichever side of the House he sat, it would be
equally gratifying to perceive that his Noble Friend's
mental faculties, at all events, were unimpaired after
his many years of public life, while his nice sense of
what was due to the honour, justice, and dignity of the
country was maintained with as muchl strength and sin-
cerity as in earlier days.—(Hear, hear.) Be (the Earl
of Derby) was far from wishing to enter into a discus-
sion of the merits of this case. Twenty-four years ago he
had brought forward the wrongs, as he then conceived
them to be, of the father of the present petitioner, and ho
thought now there could be but one opinion, after such
a statement as they had just heard, proceeding from such
an authority as his Noble and Learned Friend, evincing
so clearly the conviction on his own mind of the sub-
stantial justice of the case which he had brought before
them, that it was their bounden duty not to refuse to
submit to the test of an inquiry the facts of the case.—
(Hear, hear.) Undoubtedly there must be great diffi•
culties in the way of such an inquiry, and it must extend
to a period which would render it doubtful whether any
Committee that they might appoint could bring their
labours to a conclusion in the present session. Still, if
his Noble Friend pressed for a Committee in the present
session, ho should offer no opposition to such a motion.
There would no doubt be objections raised in the other
House of Parliament to any vote of money. At the
same time he would say, that if the report of the Com-
mittee should substantiate the justice and equity of the
claim, neither the lapse of time, nor technicalities, nor
the inconvenience of being called on to pay a sum, how-
ever large, ought to prevent this country satisfying the
demands of justice.—(Hear, hear.) However large,
therefore, the sum which might be awarded, and how-
ever unpleceing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer such
a thing might be, if the Committee should come to a
clear and undoubted opinion upon the incontrovertible
frets before them, that this gentleman had in honour,
equity, end mon:lite', a claim upon this country, Parlia-
went would not reiuse to acknowledge the liability and
respond to it.—(Hear.)
E?rl GREY did not rise to express any opinion upon
the claim of the Baron de Bode, with the merits of which
he was ucacquainted; but he agreed with the Noble Earl
who had just spoken, that if there were a valid claim on
the equity and justice of the country, however large the
rune at stoke might be, it would be the duty of the other
House of Parliament to provide the means of meeting
that claim.—(Elear, hear.) He could not help enter-
taining very serious doubts, however—he might say
more than doubts—whether the appointment of a Com-
mittee of that House was the proper mode of arriving
at important question. He thought
thata
decisionParliamentaryup
this
Committees were, of all tribunals,
the least to be trusted when the question to be consi-
dered involved a claim upon the public purse; and,
least of all, could a claim of this nature, involving
such nice considerations of law, be satisfactorily
investigated by a Committee of their Lordships
House.— (Hear, hear.) If the claim were to be brought
before the other House of Parliament, and a vote of
money were to be asked for, it ought to be recommended
by the responsible advisers of the Crown, after they, by
due inquiry, had satisfied themselves that it was a just
one. the speech of the Noble and Learned Lord did
certainly appear to make out a very strong case indeed,
but he could not help thinking that there mast be some-
thing more behind, with which they were not accurately
acquainted, which made it expedient that the investiga-
tion should be conducted by commissioners learned in
the law, or by some other tribunal more compotents
ago
a Committee of that House. Twenty-four yeaern,had
the Noble Lord now at the head of the Government
into
moved the appointment of a Committee to
d Leirdcitch° bad
this subject. The Noble and Learned t
bat time the
that evening brought it forward was, the
keeper of the King's conscience, an he presumed, the
Noble and Learned Lord's advice,
ed a decided re-
Government of that day. had
actor
;sada. TheuponNoble
ggreat seal,
cibeldacthrien
and
sist a nce
Learnedto t hLeard proposition t
Administrations with
and yet not one of the had ever thought it expo-
which he had been cosine:::
to the liherality of Par-
dieut to recommend this Lie (Earl Grey) did not pre.
bear.)
'lament.
any thing
whatever of the merits of the
tend to know a:y fact did, he must say,
h r
0 u s
inspire him
case, but that
eV doubt whether there were not some
he was not aware,
with considerable
claim of which
ght to be investigated by some very well
and,,`:„baichribuunal.— ( Hear, hear.) was not his nten-
Otowt-e- •I'de tbe House, but, when the motion inter-
lionshould
reasons
tion to .trt
•
"beg:l:no:4ldt fell it his duty to say " Not content."
be
Lord LYNDHURST begged to remind the Noble
Earl that the case had assumed quite a new appearance
since he had held the great seal in consequence of the
two successive verdicts which had
with respect to it,
been pronounced
Earl FITZ WILLIAM was surprised to find that his
Noble Friend
(Earl Grey) had on mere than one oc-
casion recently objected to the appointment of Com-
mittees for the consideration of questions like the pre-
sent, which involved neither more nor loos than the