The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-24 00:00:00

down P No, Hon. Gentleman opposite sunk before
the accusation in a manner which told little for their
spirit.—(Laughter, and " Hear, hear.") But, in this
instance, because the individual was obnoxious to them
he was treated in a different manner. He did not agree
with the Hon. Member for Knaresborcugh. He entirely
disapproved of the course he had taken. He objected
to the spirit which animated his remarks. But because
that lion. Member was obnoxious, and because he was
not backed the moment he made this he was baited.—
( Hear, hear, hear.) Gentleman after Gentleman got up
and asked him, " Why did you say this ?" If the
Hon. Member had the common courtesy of society
exercised towards him, he would have had an opportunity
of extricating himself from the painful position in which
he was placed.—(Hear, hear.) It had been said that
the Hon. Gentleman had flown from the tribunal. lie
(Mr. Disraeli) was not at all surprised that he did
not try that tribunal to deciee the question. He
had no communication with him on the subject,
except for ono moment when he was passing out of the
House, on which occasion he told him that he had a
bad case and a worse tribunal.—(Laughter.) That was
his (Mr. Disraeli's) opinion. He belleved the
Honourable Member for Knaresborough had not de-
ferred to the tribunal, but had demurred to it
He considered it was unnecessary for him to enter into
any explanations with the House, but that individuals
who thought themselves offended would take their own
course. He did not consider that this quarrel
would be made the quarrel of the House of
Commons, or that the House would convert itself
into a Court of Honour.—(Hear, hear.) The practical
question for them to consider was—whether the House
ought to establish so dangerous a precedent. The ques-
fi in between the Hon. Member and the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman was very different from that between him and the
Hon. Member for Beverley.—(Hear.) He had heard the
Hon Member for Knaresborough, on several occasions,

enter into the Mott question and the Keightly Union
and he had heard the Right Hon Gentleman the Secre.
tary of State for the Home Department, and the
Right Honourable Gentleman at the head of the
Government answer him, and enter upon all the details.
He never could depict to himself any clear idea with
regard to that involved and implicated transaction. All
he could understand was, that there had been a sub-
commission who had made a report which had been
brought forward. That the transaction was involved in
obscure and suspicious circumstances, no one could deny,
but it was absurd to suppose that the Right Hon. Gentle-
man should make such a perverted use of his power
for so slight an object.—(Cheers and laughter.)
but it should be remembered that this was the case of a
Member of Parliament of warm feelings, who was not
supported by any great party, who imagined that an
attempt had been made by a Minister of the
Crown to put him down, and that he had
resisted that attempt. They should make some
allowance for the exaggerations which excited
feelings while pardonable vanity—(Cheers and laughter)
—would naturally induce a Member under those circum-
stances to make use of while addressing the masses of the
operative community with which he deeply sympathized.
What could be more natural than that he should say,
" I did this ; I said this. An attempt was made to put
me down by a Minister of the Crown, who drew from a
green box an unpublished report, but it would not do,
I was not to be crushed." Are we, Sir, continued the
Hon. Gentleman, come to such a pass that a Member of
Parliament was not to be allowed to say this?—(lronical
cheers, and laughter.) Was it for a great statesman like
the Right lion. Gentleman, to come forward with a
demure countenance and say, " the State is in danger,
" There's something rotten in the state of Denmark."
The House of Commons must interfere to viudicate the
reputation of this strong, even if not popular, Ministry.
—(Loud cheers and laughter.) The Right Hon. Gen-
tleman did not appear at first disposed to move in the
subject, and if it had not been for the attack on the Hon.
Member for Beverly, he thought they would never have
heard of the great Mott case.—(Cheers and laughter.)
He deciared solemnly that he had never read the speech
of the Hon. Member for Knaresborough, he had never
heard it read until ho had heard it read
with unusual powers of elocution by the Learned Clerk
at the table.—(Laughter.) He had paid great attention
to it, and he confessed that he had been astonished at
the weakness of the assault. He really thought that on
that occasion, when addressing the masses and the mil-
lions, the lion. Member for Knaresborough had lost a
great deal of that impassioned fervour which usually
characterised his addresses.—(Cheers and Laughter.)
It appeared to him that he did not attack the Hun. Mem-
ber for Beverley, absent, with half the furor which he ex-
hibited in attacking the lion. Member for Stockport,
present.—(Hear.) He really thought that they might
with as much reason have had the speeches which he
made almost every night, read at the table, and
then have had the Secretary of State solemnly
moving a resolution on the subject. Now, he thought
this subject had been treated by one great master in the
right spirit, Ile thought that when the Right Hon.
Gentleman, with that historical research which lie al-
ways displayed, called their attention to the case of the
bottle conjuror, he hit the right nail on the head.—
(Laughter.) He was surprised after the admirable
example which the Right Hon. Gentleman had set to
find him followed as he had been by the Noble
Lord the Member for North Lancashire. There was
always something very chivalric about the Noble Lord ;
but when they wished to exhibit a perfect model for the
Hen. Member for Knaresborough—when they wished
to teach him what should be the spirit of Parliamentary
discussion, and how an Honourable Member of
that House should hesitate before he made
a statement that could not be proved, he
was rather surprised to find the Noble Lord, the Member
for Lancashire, get up, and, in his zeal fur his Right
Hon. Friend, denounce the sta'ements made by the lion.
Member for Knaresborough as false and calumnious, and
announce that the Hon. Member for Knaresborough was
conscious that they were false and calumnious when he
made them. That was an example which the Hon.
Member for Knaresborough would probably study as a
model ; and when be returned to that House and re-
sumed his place, they would probably find his speeches
distinguished by that amenity of manner, and choice
selection of conciliatory expressions, which always cha-
racterised the speeches of the Noble Lord.—(Laugh-
ter.) So it always was with the speeches of the
Noble Lord the Member for North Lancashire. He
destroyed Mr. Ferrand first, and destroyed his own po-
sition afterwards. He was the Prince Rupert of Parlias
mentary discussion. His charge was resisted, but when
he returned his camp was always in the possession
Then, as if all the great
of
gunst h e enemy.—(Laughter.)
were
not sufficient to sink this unfortunate
craft, the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, keeping up the solemn spirit
of the farce, rose and said " This is the British House of
Commons, and not the hustings." A gentleman might
tell hes upon the hustings, but he was not to tell
lies in the House. This was the political
morality of the Right Hon. Gentleman the
Secretary of State for the Home Department.—(Hear.)
Now he entirely differed from the Right Hon. Gentle-
man. He did not think they ought to tell lies on the
hustings.—(Hear, hear.) He
thought a gentleman
ought to be as measured in what he said on
the hustings as in what he said in the
House of Commons.—(Hear, hear.) And he would
even go further than that, and would say that a Gentle-
man ought not to make pledges :on the hustings which
he did not mean to redeem in that House.
He did not think that gentlemen on the hustings ought
to denounce the New Poor-law and come into the House
of Commons and vote for it.—(Laughter and cheers.)
lie called that corrupt and unprincipled conduct—
(Cheers)— and if any Honourable Gentleman in
that House felt that he was guilty of this
conduct, let him propose a vote of censure
upon him (Mr. D Israeli) for uttering such a
sentiment.—(Great laughter.) On Friday next, the
lion. Member for Knaresborough was to come
into that House if he accepted the lenient alternative of
the Right Hon. Gentleman at the head of the Government
and they were to recommence the proceedings of which
the had had two rehearsals.—(Laughter.) Whether the
piece would succeed after the initiating proceedings
he could not take upon himself to decide,
but he did know that any attempt in that House
whether it was right or whether it was wrong, to hunt
down an individual had never succeeded, but
had always terminated to the disadvantage of the
persons attempting it. He remembered what another
Sir Robert, who was not a greater man than the present
Sir Robert with respect to this subject. That Sir
Robert said, " I am quite tired of roasting a parson."
After his experience with Mr. Stockdale, and after his
contest with the sheriffs, when, as in the present
occasion he was supported by the Noble Lord the
Member for London, who had rather withdrawn of late
his support from the Government. He (Mr. D'lsraeli)
thought the Right Mon. Baronet was taking a good-
humoured view of this case—a bottle-conjurer
view of it—and said—" Why, really, after what
has occurred, we ought to allow the matter to drop,
feeling quite aware that Mr. Ferrand has already re-
ceived a great moral lesson, aed that when he appears
on the hustings in future, I doubt not that he will re-
member the advice of the Right Hon. Baronet the Se-
cretary of State, and always be as cautious as he is in
the House of Commons.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Captain BERKLEY could not agree with the Hon.
Gentleman who had just sat down in recommending
that the two Hon. Gentlemen who were most interested
should make this a personal
.quarrel. Such a doctrine
was most extraordinary, to say the least of it. He Capt.
Berkley-) hoped that he would be the last in that House
to offer one word of offence to any Hon. Gentleman ;
but if he even should do so, he would be ready to
apologise for it the next moment. He never would
attempt to make a personal quarrel out of any-
thing which had taken place in his pnblic character.
Perhaps, in the first instance, the silent contempt would
have been the best cure ; but when, after twenty-four
hours deliberation, the Hon. Member for Knaresborough
came down yesterday and pledged himself to the truth
of his charge, declaring that he would not retract a
single word—(Hear, hear)—under these circumstances
he did not think that it would be for the dignity of the
House that the matter should be allowed to drop.—
(Cheers) It must be in the recollection of every gen-
tleman in the House that the Hon. Member for Knares-
borough has been cheered on in the most vociferous
manner by a set of gentlemen who, whenever
the Honourable Gentleman indulged in any coarse
language levelled against the Members of the League,
or the OppositiOn of that House encouraged him by their
" sweet voices."—(Cheers and laughter.) These were,
in a great measure, the party answerable for the scrape
in which he has now got. It was very aptly remarked
by a gentleman en that (the Opposition) side of the
House, that the Hon. Member for Knaresborough had
been kept like a dog chained up to check the manufac-
tures, and that having broken his chain, he turned round
awl worried his master.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Lord J. MANNERS rose, and was
(azrt suAxpro.)