The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-28 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY

• ,
plained of the (Jo!.,uiril hs.ving sanctioned all
these executions, confiscations, and robberies, without
ha,,ing one iota of evidence before him as to whether the
usual forms and the customary humane precautions were
observed at the courts-mratial; and he contended that
the House was in a cundieion to all-ill/I.oe whole of the
resolutions noW subittcd to it. lere was proof from'
the officials of Government itself that the dlsturbances
were caused by th,,, injudicious conduct, of Lord Torrinir-
ton, and that they sci,rll:, have beers put down by the
civil power. aided by the military. The Hoe. and'
Learned Member for Sheffield argued, that by censuring
Lord Torrington they would shake - the authority of
governors in all our distant colonies; but, if. the House
did not agree to the resolutions now proposed, what se-
curity would there be that any governor of a colony
would be deterred from setting aside the law, and acting
according to his own will and pleasure?—(Hear.)
Several Hon. Members here rose to move the adjourn-
ment of the debate.

Mr. HAWES begged to ask the indulgence of the
House for a moment, not in order to enter upon the ge-
neral subject, upon which he should have to speak more
at length upon some future occasion—(Order)—but
upon a personal ground. A charge had been publicly
made against him by the Hon. Member (Mr. Baillie),
that he had been guilty of a falsification of documents
which he had been the means of laying before the Com-
mittee or upon the table of the House .—(Hear.)
Mr. BAILLIE begged the Hon. Gentleman's pardon,
but he had not referred to him in particular. He had
referred to some documents which the Colonial-office
had presented to the House, but whether they were
made up by the Noble Lord at the head of the Colonial-
office (Earl Grey), or by the Hon. Gentleman (Mr.
Hawes), or by one of the clerks of the office, he had no
means of knowing.
Mr. HAWES—The Hon. Gentleman now said he
charged the department, or some one in it. Now, he
(Mr. Hawes) represented that department, and he would
refute that charge.—(Hear.) In order to sustain it, the
Hon. Gentleman bad referred to page 270 in the ap-
pendix and index of documents. He said it was repre-
sented in that document that the Deputy: Queen's
Advocate, Mr. Stewart, had attended 14 courts-martial,
when he had only appeared before four. He admitted
that the statement was contrary to the evidence, and that
Mr. Stewart bad attended four courts-martial only. Now
since the Hon. Gentleman had groundlessly made this
charge, he had fortunately obtained the original docu-
ment, which, be it remembered, was not put in by him,
or produced from the Colonial-office, but which was
placed before the Committee by the Colonial Secretary
of Ceylon, which had never been through the Colonial-
office, and for which he therefore was not responsible.—
(Hear, hear.) Now, the document, as printed, showed,
in the shape of a table, that Mr. Stewart had attended
fourteen courts-martial, while he held in his hand the
original document, which was perfectly correct, and
which gave the number of courts-martial as four
only. In printing the table the word " ditto" was
printed under the four attendances, and this was the
error of the printer of the House of Commons.—(" Oh!"
and cheers.) Why, what further explanation could he
give? —(Hear, hear.) He held the original document in
his hand, and he was ready to place it in the hands of
the Chairman of the Committee. The error was not in
the document handed in by the Colonial Secretary for
Ceylon, but in the blue-book, and it was the error of the
printer. The Hon. Gentleman ought not to have
hazarded so lightly such a charge, and was bound to have
given him some intimation of his intention, in order that
DI
he might be able to meat it.—(Hear.)bin.
Mr. aswkiththteheNdoete
bba?
leLord on
what day While
he was upon his legs he must say that it was satisfac-
torye R
proposedAEriito rose
go to
on
to find a public office vindicated, but at the same
time, without going into a discussion, it was evident
that his Hon. Friend, as far as the merits of the case
were concerned, was justified in making the statement
alluded to.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
acij,,urnei debate would be taken on Friday.
Mr. BAILLIE said, the explanation given by the
Under. Secretary for the Colonies might be satisfactory
so far as he was concerned, but the blue-book bad now
been published nearly two months, and :oast have been
seen by all the officers of the Colonial Department; and
yet the House now heard, for the first time, that this
extraordinary error had been found to be the error of the
printer.—(Hear, hear.)
Sir G. GREY said the Hon. Member bad at first
made a charge of falsification against his Hon. Friend
or some clerk in the Colonial Department; and he said,
,‘ What a department that must be to allow the falsifi-
cation of the return !" The Hon. Member (Mr.
Balilie) admitted that his attention had long been di-
rected to the subject; but, instead of undertaking the
trouble to inquire, he had reserved this charge until now,
in order to make an impression upon the House. He
blushed for the House that it contained a gentleman who
could'attempt, after the explanation that had been given,
to justify the remarks ho had made.—(Cheers and Oh.)
Mr. BAILLIE (addressing the Speaker)—l wish to
know, Sir, whether you think the Right Hon. Gentleman
in order? If you do, Ido not; and if he is in order in
this House he is not—(The rest of the sentence was in-
audible in a cry of " Order, order!")
The SPEAKER was understood to say that he had
no doubt the Right Hon. Gentleman would explain that
he had not used the words in any offensive sense.
Sir G. GREY said he did not intend his remark to be
personal—(A cry of "Oh")—but he bad no objection to
repeat it if it were desired.—(oh.) He did regret that
any Gentleman, after the explanation given by his
Honourable Friend, could repeat the charge by saying
he had been fully vindicated in the statement he had
made.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BAILLIE asked how he could have had recourse
to the original document when that was with the Colo-
nial-office?—(Nc, no.) He admitted that the Hon.
Member had vindicated his own character and that of
the Colonial-office by his explanation, but he must also
maintain that he (Mr. Baillie) was justified in what he
had said, because, when documents were printed and
left in the hands of the House, it was only natural to
conclude that they were correct.—(Hear.)
Mr. HAWES repeated that this was not a paper that
was ever in the Colonial-office.—(Hear.) It had been
put in by the Colonial Secretary to the Committee, and
been by them transferred to the evidence. He had only
that evening obtained it from the archives of the House
of Commons.

IMF. MILES wished to know whether
alvhether the Colonial-
office
the
wasßight
gnhott ,llhoonu.n dG
Colonial-office. He was astonished
the servant of the
actsdat of
th its servants?
efeeliagdis
Secretary -
bentleman (Sir G. Grey).—
poffilayeeedwbays,
—(Oh!) The Colonial y
(Cheers)—because he generally adopted so conciliatory
a tone in that House.
Lord PALMERSTON thought
had not attended sufficiently to whatthe Hon. Gentleman
Honourable Friend (Mr. Hawes) had passed. His
had shown that the
Colonial-office was entirely blameless, and had had
nothing to do with the document in question from be-
ginning to end. It was clear there was a difference in
the paper given in and the printed
copy in the minutes.
Now, if that paper had been giveny the Colonial-
office, no blame would have attached to it, because the
paper was quite correct. But it had not been given in by
the Colonial-office, so that if the paper had.sbeen wrong
the Colonial.office would not have w been responsible for
it. Now, the Colonial Secretary in fact, the Colo-
nial Secretary at Ceylon, not was, in
but
both be and the Colonial-011143 e were
tright, inasmuch as
the written statement was correct. blame attached
anywhere in consequence of an error being made in
printing a paper contained in a report of a
Committee of
the House, it would be with the chairman of that Com-
mittee—(Great laughter) —and be thought that if the
Hon. Gentleman intended to make a charge
Colonial-office, he might in candour haveasceaftaalnesetdthe
previous inquiry whether the mistake realty or by
not
rested there.
Lord C. HAMILTON asked the House to
contrast
the tone of the Noble Lord, so true to his high eb
a-
miter, with the angry, irritated, and personal expres-
sions of the Right Hon. Gentlansan.—(llear, hear) He
considered that the Right Hon. Gentleman might have
his mind peculiarly sensitive upon this subject, but he
bad assailed the Hon. Member for -Inverness in terms—
(Cries of " No, non—he Would not say in terms, but in
a tone which he was sure the Right Voi. Gentleman
would on reflection regret.—(Hear, hear.) The Right
Hon. Gentleman 'it'd deviated from his usual high and
honourable course by the expression which he had un-
wittingly allewed to escape from him.
The A.TTORNEY-GENERAL would ask the House
to remember when the Noble Lord charged that (the
Ministerial) side with having exhibited undue warmth,
how that warmth of feeling arose? A charge was deli-
berately made by the Hon. Member for Inverness
against the Colonial-office, represented by his Hon.
Friend, of having deliberately and wilfully falsified do-
cuments.—(Hear.) That was no light charge—it was
one which affected the character of men of honour as
well as public men and servants of the Crown. His
Hon. Friend had received no notice of this charge, but
he thought that in common fairness as between man
and man, not to say as between gentleman and gentle-
man, when a man's character was about to be assailed,
some intimations would be given to him; for, mark the
position in which his Hon. Friend would have been
placed if he had not, by singular good fortune and dili-
gence, been able to produce the document before the
House—(An Hon, MEMBER--" TO-Light")—that even-
ing. It would have gone forth to the country on the
statement of the ion. Gentleman, as verified, by the
document, that there had been that falsification of the
document. That was a state of things calculated to ax-
cite warmth in any man's mind. It turned out to be un
error of the printer, and he should have expected the
Hon. Member for Inverness, on hearing that, would rise
at once and express his regret, his deep, his profound
regret, at having., unwittingly and unconsciously, been
the means of attacking th© personal honour of his Hon.
Friend; and when the House hoard the retractation and
the singular hesitation and want of candour and frank-
ness on the part of the Honourable Gentleman, could
any one wonder at the warm expression of the Right
Hon. Gentleman, looking at the circumstances of the
charge, the explanation afforded, and the hesitation of
the Hon. Gentleman? But then up jumped the Hon.
Member for the county of Somerset, and said it was the
business of the Cdonial-office to watch every document
that passed through that office—that was to say, his
Honourable Friend was to be held responsible for every
" ditto" which the printer, by mistake, inserted through-
out the mass oP documents then before the House.
And then up got the Noble Lord the Member for
Tyrone, and complained of the warmth of that side of
the House. The Noble Lord ought to be the last man
in that House to make such a complaint.—(Hear and
laughter.) The warmth had arisen under the circum-
stances he had stated, and it was a warmth upon which
no man need be ashamed.

Mr. HERRIFS said that after the display of warmth
on both sides, he expected that so grave a personage as
the Attorney• General would have said something to as-
suage it, rather than vindicate all tho warmth that had
been exhibited oa his own side. The Lion. and Learned

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