The Sun.
London, England, 1810-01-30 00:00:00

THE INQUIRY.

Lord PORCIIIIBTEII, as the testimony of the
Martinis of Huntly would be desirable oA the 'in-
quiry into the condu& and policy of the late Expe-
dition,' moved, that a message be sent to the Lords,
requesting them to desire George Baron Gordon to
attend a Committee of the HoUse on. Friday.—
Carried.

Mr. HORNER gave notice that on Thursday next
he would tubve for accounts relatipg to the state of
bullion in this country.

NEWSPAPERS.

Mr. MANNING called the attention of the Ho'use
to a circumstance which he regarded as a breach bf
one of its privileges.' He held in his hand a News-
paper, which contained- two lists of she names of
the Members of that House; the one consisting of
the names of those NA ho voted for the Inquiry, on
the last debate ; the other of those who were against
it. The names bad not only thus been given to
the public, but marks had been placed against them
to distinguish those who were in the borough interest.
He bad be o: misrepresented, but he would not
bring forward a complaint against the Paper; his
motive in noticing it was to put the parties On their
guard, for the time to come, as, if they continued
the praetice he had spoken of, he had reason to be-
lieve that many Members of that House beside
himself would'call for the 'severest:punishment they
could

Mr: CRICEVkY said, that .so far fr,tri the price
the Hon. Mewl? .had notice.' hciug a breach of
the. privde.,:es of 'that Howe, it was nothhig more
than what had been done by i,s own order. In
Lhe time of .1.1114lijaill; the ba'rwr:6 of the

Monibeo and the s'de on whi i they .votco,
were ordered to be 'published, that, the• eapnity
might know who were most aniiors to disj;arge
Iheif duty. ,
•

• ,
Mr. LASC'ELLES thought it was not so much the
.publication of the names, as the oircurnstance:W
marks being placed against them that constituted/the
offence, and as appeared in a new list,:that madetits
appearance on that day. A misrepresentation with
respeft•to himself bad taken place; as lie,•accorditig
to that, appeared ,Against an inquiry, 'which was not
the fact.

WILEMIFORCE approved of the practice, and
thought it ought to be continued,. that •the line' of
eondtta pursued by every MeMber of that Ennse
might be knoWn: to his constituents, but- those who
presented such lists to the public ought to be: care-
ful to' see that they were correct. He 'had reason
id complain, as from, the mkrepresentations that
had taken place, his constituents,-might from- this
suppose that he had „ neglected his duty to them,
which he had: never done, unless prevented by sick-
ness-or ',some ,unforeseen :eircturf§tance. ' This was
not the only misrepresentation of which he. had to
complain. A few nights back he had been naistut-
stood by an Hon. Gentleman on the other side. .He
'had disavowed what ,he had 'been understood to
assert, but his disavowal had•not been noticed. It,
was of no small'imporiance to public men what
went abroad as
.having been uttered
,by them in that
House. SOme Gentlemen were, perhaps, more
particularly attended to than others, from their
being particularly connected with a pa: ty ; but he;
being known to be an enemy to all patty, bad no,
body'to take care of him (A Ifittg4).. He could u'ot.
.say he had loSt his character tli:oogh t: is circum-
stance, but he wondered that he had not,. having
been so often misrepresented.
Mr. Por4so,,,:aV derived one pleasure from that de-
bate, as he was happV to seerGeollemen -were then
sn titixtou4 to stand well. with their constituents. - If
any wilful misrepresentatiOns Were published, they;
certainly could not be punished with too Much se-
verity. They certainly ought to be Correa, but,
inaccuracies might sometimes innocently occur. He,
did not think the evil quite.so great as some -persons
were of opinion it was, as it could be-remedied with.:
wit much diffloulty, by the parties noticing-any such
misrepresentation in that House; and thus correJ-
ingthe error.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQU.4It did not
'know what reason the Honourable Gentleman hid
so particularly to compliment the House on"being
thns anxious to stand well with the Public lie
did not know that they were then more than usually-
so, or that they had done any thing that seemed -to.
bespeak theM inattentive to the duty they owed
their constituents. :With respell to the subject be-
fore the House, he thOtight, if brought forward at
all, that it ought to have been not merelhnoticed,
but complained of. Did the Honourable ,Gentle-
man think it no inconvenience to be 'misrepresent-
ed, because every 'Member might Come down and
correct those misrepresentations that affetaed him ?.
Was- that the dignified line -of conduct he would,
prescribe to the House Ought any -misrepresent-
ations to be made merely because they:couldte cor;.
retied ? 'When a Member made sich a eorrectior,
the correaion rested with the same persons who had
been guilty cf the • misrepresentation. They could
give it just as they pleased,- or omit it entirtly. it
had been Said, printing :lists of their names was not
a breech of the privileges of that House, because:
the printing of the names bad sometimes been or-.
dered, by the Members of it. Did the Hon. Gen-
tleman mean to assimilate the printing,of the names.
by their own order, with that care and accuracy
uithwhich they were then published, with the pub-.
lihhers of newspapers giving to the erro-
neous list ? If a 'circurnstance of that nature were
noticed at all, he thought it the more dignified way
to bring it forward by way of complaint.
Mr. PONsoirnY, in eNplanivion, said he- had been
misunderstood. He did not Fay that inconve-
nience arose from such misrepreserrt-atiebs on the
contrary, ha' bad said, that if such, Were Wilfully
made, they ought to be severely punished. sHe had
said, that the evil was not quite so great as some.
Gentlemen seemed to think, as it cold be reme-
died ;- but that Was -not saying it occasioned rib iti-
cotwenithice at ail:

the CHANCEL,,LOR of the Excispausa explained.
Mr. WHITlittEM> was sorry the Right .Hon Gen-
tleman appeared so 4-ore 'when his •Hon._ Friend' had
spoken of the present 'feeling in the House. lie.
had sometimes noticed that toWards the close of the
sixth Session of a- Parliament,- the Members ap-
peared more commonly awake to the intereSta of the
people.-• He saw' a something of tha t - so.rt t-)f feeling
then in the House. He hid observed more On the
second night of Session than on the firsr, and
still more on the third. He was unwilling to_ cow-
plain of the cor dna of some Newspaper Editors,, or
he might, as his speech had been entirely left out
to make room for. the Right Honourable Gentle-
man's opposite. The Members for York might
have cause to complain., but he dared to say, that if
he was misrepresented 'in one newspaper he fodnd
good report of what he had said in another. Though
some were bad, yet, upon the whole, the-people
were enab!ed by them to ,fortn, a tolerably just esti-
mate of the charatier of 'a public man. Of all
others, he thought this the most innocent breach of
their privileges. The placing- an asterisk against a
man's name to mark another as the representative
of a boroughs when erroneous, was not so great as
to justify bringing the printer to the Bar. He had
been in Parliament eo years, and never once remem-
bered a case where he was not 'disposed to let
the printer escape, and this was the • last case in
which he would infiid punishrrient: He agreed
with the Members. for York, in thinking their
names ought to be published, that no ambiguity
might attach to their condu6t.
Mr. BANKS 'made a- few_ observations, after
which,

• Mt. MANNING brieflly replied, objdOing more to
the marks and comments which `accoMpatlied the
names, than to the printing of them alone.
- The SPEAR observed, that 'though no question
was before the House, the debate must have a
limit, and -he hoped they had then arr:ved' at it.