The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1839.

the Warwick assizes, or elsewhere, for corrupt or im-
proper neglect of their duty ; but they conveyed the
information to the party accused, and exposed the
parties criminating them to all the consequences of pri-
vate revenge.—(Hear, hear.) This had been the case
on a former occasion, and the consequences of this mode
of proceeding would be that in point of fact Magistrates
would be exempt from punishment for misconduct,
unless the Government would consent to be a party to
the prosecution. He thought as the law of England at
present stood, that any man could go into a Court of
Justice and bring a charge, or institute a prosecution
against a Magistrate, but this was not ac?ording to the
code of that High Priest of liberality, the Emperor
Napoleon. According to the code Napoleon, the consent
of the Government was necessary before the most inferior
officer could be brought to justice ; but the law of Eng-
land made it competent for any individual whatever to
prosecute a Magistrate for misconduct ; but if this sys-
tem of the Home Office was followed out it would be so
no longer. He hoped to see some check put upon this
mode of proceeding, and he would ask the Noble Vis-
count if he would have any objection to lay those
papers before the House, because the public ought to
be made acquainted with the circumstances of this case.
—(Cheers.) _

Viscount MELBOURNE was not precisely aware
whether the Noble Duke intended to allude to what
had passed elsewhere, or to what had passed before
their Lordships on a former occasion. He was not pre-
cisely aware of what had passed in another plaee, but
certainly whatever comments might have been made, or
whatever expressions might have been made use of, he
was sure that no expression was used intending to offend
the Noble Duke, any more than what had fallen from
him (-Viscount Melbourne) on a former occasion. The
Noble Duke seemed to think he had been charged in
unparliamentary language with exaggerating. The ex-
pression was one that was constantly used, and seemed
to him to be one of the mildest expressions that could
be made use of. He would not go back to
argue if it had been properly applied on that oc-
casion ; but if the expressions of the Noble Duke
were not exaggerated, then war was a much
milder thing than he (Viscount Melbourne) had
ever been led to consider it. He did not exactly collect
from the Noble Duke what charge he meant to bring
against the Government as to their conduct with respect
to the Magistrates. In the first place if he meant to
bring a charge against him (the Noble Viscount) in re-
ference to what he was totally uninformed of, or be-
cause he had not been informed of it three or four hours
before it happened—or because he did not act upon a
subject in reference to which he had received no informa-
tion, or because it was not incumbent on him not to
come to a hasty conclusion—or because be did not, upon
the spur of the moment, institute an inquiry against the
Magistrates before he and his colleagues had been able
to weigh any necessary information, he could only say he
did not feel he laboured under any great degree of just
imputation in these respects. It was intended on this
occasion to follow the course which had been taken upon
the occasion of a much more serious and much more grave
subject of this description—he meant the affair of Bristol ;
something which certainly did appear to him (the Noble
Viscount) to have resembled the taking of a town by
storm, where upwards of a hundred lives were lost, where
a
not
g rienart
apart o
hour
rf thecn townd
at half,
oa
nn
sd where,
de
rab le
wasbu but
burntfora down,
very
time, the whole town was in possession of a lawless and
riotous mob. And though there was a good deal of
imputation on that occasion against the Magistrates, he
did not remember that there was such an eagerness to
question their conduct in Parliament.—(Hear, hear.)
He did not know what was the reason of that, but there
certainly was not then anything like the present eager-
ness shown to have the conduct of the Magi-
strates discussed in parliament.—( Hear.) It was then
thought necessary to institute an inquiry into the
conduct of the Magistrates, and it was considered
proper to file a criminal information against them, upon
which to try them in the Court of Queen's Bench.
That criminal information was filed—they were tried,
and they were acquitted. Now, he apprehended no-
body would say it would be the proper course in the
present instance at once to file a criminal informa-
tion against these Magistrates. The course that was
about to be taken was to institute an inquiry into
their conduct—to learn what their conduct had been,
and to see whether that conduct afforded any ground
for ulterior proceedings. With respect to the papers
which the Noble Duke had moved for, he (the
Noble Viscount) Lad not collected the object for
which the Noble Duke wished the production of those
papers ; he, however, was not only willing to accede
to their production but he was anxious that they should
be before their Lordships. It appeared that the Me-
morialists had not much confidence in her Majesty's
Ministers ; whether they had any reason for that he did
not know, but probably the Noble Duke would be pre-
pared to show whether they had or had not when the
papers were produced. As to the riots that occurred
at the last election, to which the Noble Duke had re-
ferred, they were riots in which there were charges brought
against both the civil and military authorities. He was
however at this moment not precisely aware of the
course which had been pursued by his Noble Friend
on that occasion, but be was quite sure that there was
no reason to infer from the course then taken that his
Noble Friend would on the present occasion pursue
a course that was inconsistent with justice, or
ec_tt
was not intended to that he would not afford full information
s before a
place, coursen o personal
iof pro-
ceeding of all the facts ; but it was always neces-
sary first
ceeding was determined upon.
afennyctehiwngas
against
ted the to him.b o
fide statement I
on ,nt of He would again assure the
Noble Duke that in what he had said on the former occasion,
and in what to
had knowben saidthe facts
another e
the Noble of
Duke—nothing but
to convey an opinion
that the Noble
Duke had given a stronger colour to his statement of the
transaction than the facts
then before the House could
bear.

The Duke of WELLINGTON complained that the
Magistrates had been elected by the Town Council con-
trary to the law ; and therefore the Secretary of State was
responsible for their conduct and hence it was that pro-
ceedings arising out of their conduct became a legitimate
subject for the attention of Parliament. Between the dif-
ficulty of the Secretary of State getting hold of thisinfor-
imi°rithe unwillingness of the parities to give it, and
then the unwillingness of the Secretary of State to prose-
cute these Magistrates, the affair became not the affair of
individuals, but, as it was in France, the affair of the Go-
vernment.

Lord MELBOURNE entirely denied that these Ma
gistrates were appointed, as the Noble Duke stated, b'
the Town Council, in contravention of the Act of Parlial
ment. Nothing could be more natural than that the opi-
nion of the Town Council should be taken as to the ap-
pointment of the Magistrates for the town.
The Earl of RIPON said, with respect to a statement
that had been made on a former evening relative to par-
ties who were opposed to the grant of a Charter to Bir-
mingham, having made a return of false names and streets
that had no existence, he begged to say that these parties
felt extremely hurt at its being supposed that they would
have practised such a fraud upon the Privy Council. They
had done no such thing—whey had done every thing in
their power towards forwarding the inquiry, and be was
satisfied his Noble and Learned Friend was not aware
of all the facts when he made the statement.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said he had in the very
same breath explained that he had applied to Birmingham
the remarks which he had meant for Manchester—( Hear,
hear)—and any person who read his observations would find
that such was the case.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH had had some expe•
rience of the way in which these inquiries were conducted,
and he would be glad if the Noble Viscount would state what
was the course it was intended to adopt with reference to the
investigation into the conduct of theßirmingham Magistrates.
He wished to know whether the instructions which were
to be sent down to the Commissioner would be laid before
the parties who had preferred the complaint as to the con-
duct of the Magistrates—whether there would be a power
of examination upon oath, and whether in Short, the tri-
bunal was one in which confidence could be placed? He
would observe, at the same time, that he did not think it
quite impartial that the Noble Viscount should appoint the
Commissioner who was to inquire into the conduct of the
Magistrates, because the Commissioner would naturally
favour the party appointing him, and lean towards the
acquittal of the Magistrates.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY had received a
letter, dated July 18, from Stockton-upon-Tees, signed
by several gentlemen who were travellers for commercial
houses, and complaining of having been insulted by the
Chartists, during a recent riot in that town. He begged
to submit the letter for the perusal of the Noble Viscount,
The Noble Marquis then presented a petition respecting
the Annandale Peerage from Mr. Bickersteth Johnston,
which, on the motion of Lord Brougham was read at
length by the Clerk, and was subsequently withdrawn for
informality.
Lord REDESDALE presented petitions from Had-
dington and other places, in favour of religious instruction
in Scotland.
NDON
The Bishop of LO presented a petition to the
same effect.
Lord LYNDHURST presented a petition from the
Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs of Dublin, praying to be
heard by Council against the Municipal Corporations
(Ireland) Bill.
The Earl of RODEN presented a petition to the same
effect from one of the officers of the Corporation of Dublin.
Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from a public
meeting held at Glasgow, signed by the Chairman, depre-
cating the conduct of the police at Birmingham as most
illegal and unconstitutional. Ho felt it his duty to correct
a very prevalent error with regard to the Riot Act. It
was a mistake to suppose that the police or military could
not act until the Riot Act had been read. They were not
restrained from acting before it was read, but it was a
felony, and formerly a capital one, if the parties assembled
did not disperse in one hour after it had been read.
The Marquis of NORMANBY laid upon the table
papers relative to the Church in Canada, which wore
ordered to be printed.
The Duke of RICHMOND presented a petition from
Huntley in favour of a uniform system of penny postage.
The Earl of STANHOPE presented a petition from a
parish in Cumberland against the abominable Poor-law
) The Noble Earl then
correspondence which had taken
bassador at Paris and the
pmAl
oamvceeeidr
bd
foremtwe nee
xte
tnr Aa
techttse. —0
British
lauAg mh.
French Government relative to the expulsion of certain
British subjects for Meilleraie.
IRISH MUNICIPAL REFORM BILL.
Lord BROUGHAM said he would take the
opportunity of the question for the reading of the
order of the day for the second reading of this