The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-27 00:00:00

t in by by tychoble Lord in the shape of documents, that th
individual against whom the complaint was made should be
heard, and then the Member making the complaint submitted
his motion to the House.—(Cheers from the Tories.)
Mr. O'CONNELL then rose, and said—Sir, however
inconvenient such a course may be, I bow at once to your
decision. It certainly is most peculiarly inconvenient, because
my intention was, if the Noble Lord had concluded by a mo-
tion, to move an Amendment for inquiry on this subject--
it was my intention to have moved an inquiry into
the merits—(Cries of " ob, oh," from the Tories.) I
have no right to complain of the Noble Lord ; on the
contrary, I think he delivered himself with as much courtesy as
was reasonably to be expected; and if be failed in one phrase,
I attribute that readily more to his inexperience at his time of
life in public speaking, than to any attempt to infringe any
rule of this House, or to any want of courtesy.—(Hear.)
I don't know of what the Noble Lord complains._( Laughter
from the Opposition.) I like hilarity.--( Laughter.) I re-
peat, I don't know of what he complains. He talks of my at-
tacking the whole House, and he reads a paragraph from a
speech of mine, in which I attack only one side.—( Hear.)
I the more readily forgive his impatience upon the subject, be.
cause he has been on an Election Committee himself.—
( Hear.) And it is natural to feel a repugnance to an imputa-
tion of a corrupt or partial tribunal. Nothing is more hateful
than a partial public tribunal.---(Cheers.) Yet I am con-
vinced such a state of things does exist.—(Hear.) I am
thankful to the Noble Lord for having brought public atten-
tion to the subject. I endeavoured to call the attention of
of the House to it ; but I failed, and I resolved to appeal to
the public. I have heard a great deal in the House about
piety—on observances—( Hear, hear, hear)—about de-
secration of the Sabbath ; but I know not of any
desecration so terrible as that of the holy name of God,
which is taken to attest the determination to do justice, with a
predisposition to act partially.—(Cheers.) Does the Noble
Lord think there is no such thing in this House ?--(Hear.)
I did not hear him deny that Committees were partial—l sup-
pose he meant to deny it by implication. Heaven help the man
who, out of this House, even among Members of this House,
should venture to say that Election Committees of this House
are impartial tribunals—that they are assembled to do justice
between the parties—he would be laughed to ridicule. —( Hear. )
The public opinion has been made up upon the point—the pub-
lic do not hesitate to say that these tribunals are corrupt. What
do they say ? Do they not, when they see the Members come up
to your table to be sworn, the moment they see the composition
of the Committee, they can tell you the decision. Was the
Noble Lord in the House the other night when the Youghal
Committee was balloted for ?__( Cheers.) Did he hear
the cheer, the loud cheer—foe even delicacy did not
suppress it—did he hear the cheer with which the last
name was received by his friends around him?—(Cheers.)
(Loud Ministerial cheers, with cries of " No, no" from the
Tories, and " Yes, yes," from their opponents.) A clapping
of hands actually took place.—(" No, no," from the Tories,
with cries of " Yes, I heard it" from the Ministerial side.) I
put it on the ;sauce—let us try it any way you please—it did
occur in my hearing, and I am ready to prove it.--( Cheers.)
Is not the Noble Lord perfectly aware that no Ballot has
taken place during the present Session, that there has not
been a regular canvassing. I see that this paper has been
brought down from the Carlton Club. Is riot the Noble
Lord aware, that upon every ballot canvassing votes are
sent out from that Club-House to every member upon whom
the party can depend. Are not the Gentlemen opposite
summoned, upon their allegiance, to come down and attend
to every ballot ? I would like to see any Gentleman oppo-
site get up and deny mv statement. There is none—none of
you dare deny it.---( Hear, hear.) Well, then, there is a
canvass upon every election ballot, and for what is it you come
down ? Is it in order to discharge your conscientious duties,
or, is it in order to prevent us from forming our Com-
mittees on this side the House? I dare any of you to
say that it is in discharge of your consciences.—( Hear,
hear.) Then, you come down here in order to prevent us
teem having partial Committees on this side the House.
Then you do come down to prevent us from having Com-
mittees from our side the House. Then you have brought
the same charges against this side the House, that I have
brought against you.—( Loud cheers.) Is there a man amongst
you that does not know the iniquity of the system?
What is said when a Committee is struck ? Don't every one
say—Oh, now it is sll right—(Laughter)—there can be no
doubt that the Member will be unseated, or that be will retain
his seat according as the majority of the Committee is. Even
the counsel—do they not say, " Oh, it's all right, we may
take this easy; we have a majority of 61, which, with the
vote of the Chairman, gives us a clear majority of 75 ; we can
now take it easy; we are all safe." Has the Noble Lord
read the address of Sir Samuel Whalley to his constituents,
in which he stated that he had resigned because he despaired
of success, seeing that there was a large majority of
Tories upon the Committee ?—( Hear, hear.) The public
newspapers said so, and it is put in them by way of adver-
tisement, and yet the Noble Lord is shocked at it. He
says let us vindicate our honour; so say 1.--( Cheers.) But
the way to do so is to get rid of the present:system.—( Cheers. )
The way to vindicate your consciences is to do away with such
proceedings ; and the way to vindicate your religious feelings is
to send such matters to a proper tribunal—that tribunal to
which your lives and property is confided. Let such questions
be sent to Judges and Juries fairly selected from the counties
least tainted with particular wishes upon particular questions
___(Cheers)—giving, power to the Judges to set aside im-
proper verdicts, with power to the superior Jur'ge
to set aside any matters •f law.--(Loud cheers.) It
the Noble Lord had wished to vindicate his conscience he
would have come forward with a motion of that description.
But when the House is so nearly measured, when the majority
is so small, every vote you strike off by one of your Committees
is a step to office, honour, and emolument.—(Cheers.) The
Noble Lord seems to think that I was the first person who
had made use of such language as this—he talks
with astonishment that the people should hear such
language.—( Cheering.) There is certainly a maiden
modesty in never having beard this subject touched on before;
but as such is not the case I will refer the House to what Mr.
Buller said. Mr. Buller told the House in November last—l
will read it, in order that the Noble Lord and the House sway
know that I am not the first person that broached this subject—
many gentlemen sent in a number of decisions, since the com-
mencement of the present Session to this day, of the most
outrageous nature.--( Hear, from the Opposition benches.) I
think that may be called a re-echo.—( Laughter.) That is
what I call re-action—it signified that those monstrous
decisions have taken place on this side of the House.—(Hear,
hear, from the Opposition.) Now, then, if we both tell truth,
as I firmly believe we do—( Much laieghter and checirng)___
why, instead of wasting time in taking into consideration my
speech at the Crown and Anchor, should nut this House in-
stantly assemble for the correction of that evil ? Why not
force its correction ?—( Hear.) I tell the Noble Lord that
my object is to force its correction—that there shall be no
more perjury and no more party Committees if I can.—
(Cheers.) No one (whoever may profit by them) shall at-
tempt to defend the system if I can. But what did Mr.
Buller say ? " At present the individual opinion out
of the House among Tories, Whigs, and Radicals is, that
an Election Committee of the House of Commons is an
assemblage of men whom neither honour, virtue, nor their
oaths can bind when their political bias is involved."—( Vehe-
ment cheering from the Ministerial side of the House.) That
was said in this House with reference to the political bias
which was believed to prevail—it was communicated to the
public—and I am not aware that any notice has been taken of it.
Lord MAIDSTONE—I was not then in the House.
Mr. O'CONNELL—It was on the 27th November that
statement was made, and if I mistake not, the Noble Lord then
had a seat in the House. Mr. Buller had merely told the House
what the public thought of them ; he had dealt most leniently
with them, but I would be glad to know wbo has contradicted hint?
Not one human being has done so, although he said that public
opinion was passed with respect to the douse, and that neither
Whig, Tory, nor Radical had any other opinion.—(Hear,
hear.) My object is to rouse you not to attack an indi-
vidual, who without meaning any disrespect to the House, is
not very regardful of that attack--( Hear, hear)—but to attack
the system—to cleanse your consciences, and to purify your
honours of that system which you have been told in this
House is such, that " neither honour, virtue, nor oaths, are
disregarded when party political bias is involved."—( Cheers.)
On that occasion I saw a paragraph in one of the public News-
papers, the Morning Chronicle, which I shall now read to tho
House, to show the Noble Lord who rises to vindicate the honour
of Tory Committees that the process is not so easy as he
thinks. The Chronicle, in alluding the other day to what the
Law Magazine calls the " trifling with oaths," proceeds to
say, " The Members of Committees send witnesses to prison
for trifling with oaths, while they themselves, by their deci-
sions, show themselves utterly regardless of their own oaths."
I read that in the Chronicle of the 27th of November last.
Now I submit that the Noble Lord is but laying a trap fur
us to bring forward a motion of this kind after such
things have been openly promulgated by the public newspapers.
The Hon. and Learned Member then proceeded to read the
continuation of the passage--" Oaths are of no avail in
Committees. The breach of a solemn oath in a Com-
mittee is attended neither with inconvenience nor dis-
grace." With respect to the Committee of which the Noble
Lord was a Member, I did not allude in particular to it, but
has the Noble Lord seen what has been said of that Commit-
tee ?—(Hoar, hear.) The Noble Lord, I believe, was in a
minority on that Committee.—( Hear and laughter.) The
Times, a paper which cannot be suspected of being a partizan
on this side of the House—(Hear and laughter)—has the Noble
had seen what the Times said of that Committee ? If not I
will give him a little information on the subject, for at his
time of ,life his education must necessarily be imperfect,
and any thing in the shape of information must be useful to
him. I quote from the Times of the 23d Feb., 1838.
The Times said " any peculiar aptitude in point of knowledge
is wholly out of the question. As to impartiality, we have
heard it openly asserted, that any person who should praise the
jurisdiction on this score would be in pure irony." I beg the
Noble Lord's particular attention to what follows. "If we
were compelled to suppose a clique of partizans, laying their
heads together in order to warp public justice and contriving
to do that collectively, which some of them are prevented in-
dividually from attempting, perhaps the privilege of Parlia-
ment might be set up against us, and the limit of the offence
be its own protection and our punishment, &c." Does the
Noble Lord wish to know who is that " clique of partizans"
according to this newspaper ? Why, this very Salford Com-
mittee, on which he sat.—( Laughter.) The Times treated
them as dunces.—(Continued laughter.) Why did riot the
Noble Lord read the Times newspaper on Friday morniug ?
Was he so enamoured of my speech that he could read no-
thing elsc—(Great laughter)—that he did not read this '
account given of himself in the Times newspaper ? It is not
one of the Radical or Whig papers that has given this expo-
sition—it is the organ of the Tories—the mighty "Thunderer"
in our land that blows you up is the air—( Loud laughter)
—the majestic Tinies, the triumphant man-of-war puddledock
—( Great laughter)—according to the Times, the Salford
was a clique of partizans. the Noble Lord and all,