The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-30 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, April 29.
ROYAL ASSENTS.

The Royal Assent was given by Commission, at Four
o'Clock this clay, to the following Bills :—the Spirit
Duties .(Ireland) Bill ; the Corn Importation Bill ; the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Bill ; the Nottingham
Gas Bill ; and the St. Austen Market-House Bill.
The Lords Commissioners were, the Lord Chancellor,
LOrd %Marneline, and the Duke of Buccleuch.
The House then adjourned during pleasure.
The House resumed at Five o'Clock.
Several private Bills were brought up from the Com-
mons and read a first time.
•SEVERN NAVIGATION BILL.
This Bill was read a third time and passed. •
CHARGE AGAINST .A MAGISTRATE.
The Marquis 'of NORMANBY said he was now about
to ask the question of which he had given notice to the
l'inble Lord opposite, respecting the 'case of a pntleman
named Biddulph. The charge was one which would
press hard against an individual, and therefore he (the
Noble Marquis) would not make it unless he were
obliged by the strongest feeling of public duty. It
would be recollected that in the course of the last Ses-
sion a Noble Earl, not now in his place,
made, a motion, impugning the conduct of the first
4)t -iCe three Juries who tried the case with which Mr.
Blattlpla Was.counected. He (the Noble Marquis) then
said that the Solicitor-General had approved of the
conduct of the Jury. Some time - after a letter was
read . from Mr. Biddulph to the effect that what
he (the Noble Marquis) had said was not accurate ;
upon which he wrote to the Solicitor-General, who sent
an answer which confirmed what he (the Noble Marquis)
had said of the jury. Another fact was, that in the
month of July a Jury said to have been dismissed for
disagreement was dismissed because one of them became
suddenly-ill. The conduct of the Crown prosecutors was
Lest proved from thafact that. those who were to be tried
on a capital charge were admitted to bail. Now he
(the Noble Marquis) would draw the attention of the
House to the conduct of Mr. Biddulph with respect
to this case. He had. evidence in his head, fur.:
hilted by two newspapers of opposite parties, which
;awe a report of the cross-examination of Mr. Biddulph
and his servant, and from this report it appeared that
between the two trials Mr. Biddulph did endeavour to
make the two prisoners fiy from justice. His steward,
Castles, said, that by desire of his master. he went to the
fdther of 'one of the prisoners to induce him to persuade
his son to fly a and when the old man said what will he-
cOme -of' the bail, then Castles'answer was, " I dare say
the Government will4not look after the matter." Now,
if ,this report turned out to be true, it certainly behoyed the
Government to :inquire into the ease. *Here was a.
Magistrate employed to execute the law, acknowledging
upon his oath, and confirmed in his acknowledgment by
the oath of his servant, that he (the Magistrate) had

endeavoured to induce persons boimd over to take their
trials for a serious offence to fly from the country. Mr.
Biddulph's notion might, perhaps, be an amiable weakness,
but what would have been the result if his advice had been
taken ? Why, that the prejudice raised against the
former Jury, which he hail assisted to establish by his
communications to that House, would have been confirmed,
and it would have been impossible to convince
the public that that Jnry had done its duty.
The theta were notorious, and were made public through
the medium of the newspapers; and he must say he was
much surprised that the attention of the Government
had not been called to this matter, and it must have been
the duty of certain parties engaged in this atatir to call
the attention of the Government to it. When the
Ipriner Ministry were in ofac, it was customary at the
conclusion of every assize for confidential reports
to be made to the Attorney-General of everything
remarkable which took place during the assize.
If that plan had been followed out in this case, he
thought this matter would not have been allowed to go
on.. He wished to knoW Whether any communication
had taken place between Mr. Biddulph and the Irish
Government. _ _ _

Earl DE GREY said, that when the Noble Marquis

gave notice of this question, he (Earl de Grey) stated
that he knew nothing of the case, but that he would en-
deavour to ascertain the merits of the case ; and as the
shatter had been commented on in a very unjust and un-
it:USW manner, he should wish to say a few words upon
it._ Mr. Biddulph's Offences were tried at three assizes ; at
the first there was no verdict ; at the second a Juror was
taken ill ; and at the third the prisoner
.was acquitted.
Their Lordships would know that a person in office had
a good deal to du beside looking. into the newspapers ;
he might see them or he might not, and be (Lord be
Grey) could truly say that last year he was perfectly
ignorant of the matter, and he knew nothing at all of
it till within the last week. Every Government must, of
course, act through its accredited agents, and with
respect to the present agents he believed that no change
had taken place, and the very same gentlemen now filled
the offices at the assizes as filled them previous to his
entering:Office, and as no orders had been given them, he
(Lord be G.) believed they had not altered theifpractice.
If anything occurred in assizes on the part of the Magis-
trates, the Judge takes note of it, and communicates his
observations to the Government. The Judge upon that

Assize, Chief Justice Pennefather, had made no communi-
cation to the Government -on the subject. it was true
that he was ill for some time, end that might be the cause
of his silence. But the fact was, however, that no peti-
tion, memorial, or other communication on the subject
had reached the Government. He would not undertake

to say that it was not the duty of the Government
read the newspapers ; he could only say if
they did so it would oe very laborious.--(Laughter.)
If they did so they would find a great deal of advice as
to who was to be dismissed and who was to be promoted.
He had written to Ireland, but had not yet received the
answer of the Lords Justices, why would, no doubt,
take every means for ascertaining whether Mr. Bicldulph
had acted in the manner of which he was charged. The
Lord-Lieutenant of the County, who was unquestionably
a gentleman 'of vigilance and impartiality, had made no
communication to the Government on the subject of Mr.
Biddulph ; but he .was no more hound to read the
newspapers than was the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Ire had only to state the case so far as it affected the
Government ; he had given instructions to have the
case inquired into, and would do his best to have justice
done with every impartiality,
The Marquis of NORMANBY thought that, from
the state the matter appeared to have reached, it would
be improper for him to press it further. As to its being
no part of the duty of. a Lord-Lieutenant to read the
newspapers, if no other reports of trials at the Assizes
appeared they we'm the best available.
Earl FORTYLSCIJE trusted the affair, would have the
effect of retraering,their .Lordships less ready to lend an
ear to the 'imputations so frequently thrown out against
the .ev.iduct of the Irish Juries when a verdict of
(:.'llnr.tion was not immediately given.
BOROUGH MAGISTRATES.

Marquis of NORMANDY presented a petition
from the Town7council of Gateshead against the late
addition to the Magistracy of that borough. In Bath
the number of. eouservative Magistrates had been
increased, and in Chester there had - boen eight Magi-
strates, foot of whom were Liberal, and three Conserva-

ives ; and six Conservlttives have since been added.
lie wisi-,ed to call the attention of the Noble and Learned
Lord 'to this fact, as he (the Marquis of Normanby)
V Masi dered that his question, on a former occasion, had
'let 'been fully answered, viz., that additions had been
'421 de without reference to any public body, but upon the
)21 iva.te responsibility of partisans.
The LORD CILANCELLOR was quite sure the
House would not much like this subject being intro-
• Muted night after night, and he had no doubt it would be
rguxlly irksome for their Lordships to hear him on the
subject. 'He admired the noncludaalce with which his
Noble Friend had brought forward the subject. The Noble
Marquis, after three or four weeks'.examinatien, had dis-
covered one or two instances in which he supposed that
the appointments had been made for the purpose
of turning the scale in favour of the Conservative inter-
est. In the case to which the Noble Marquis had per.
ticularly referred, and of which notice had been given,
he trusted he should be able at once to give satisfactory
information. Had the Noble Marquis given notice of
his intention of bringing Bath and Chester under the
consideration of the House, he had no /doubt he
t.lrottld have been able to have given an explanation
q' "'pally, satisfactory ; but it was really too much,
• :.'it of 142 boroughs, to call upon him, without previeus
notice, to give an account of the wanner in which the
:.appointments had been made in one or two cases
aelected for the purpose. He trusted he might
be able to give a satisfactory explanation
• with respect to Gateshead. Before he did so, perhaps
their Lordships would allow him to state the po-
:,ition in which they were placed when they first came
into office. There were in the county of Durham five
rcri7 populous boroughs. Gateshead was one, Sunder-
Jana Was another, Stockton. on-Tees was a third, Dar-
n= a fourth, and lastly the populous borough of South
Shields. Would their Lordships credit it without
.the evidence, that at the moment they came into
office in these five boroughs, populous as they were, and
with so many, Magistrates, . there was only one
.Gonservative Justice of the Peace.—(Loud cheers.)
Three of these boroughs were boroughs under
the Reform Bill, and the whole of the boroughs were
almost exclusively governed at the period to which he
had referred by Magistrates of the same politics as 'the
Noble Marquis. Having stated this, he would
_explain
the particular case of Gateshead. It was an extremely
Populous district, and when they first came into office, there
nle, as the Noble Marquis had stated, only six Magistrates,
t! one of whom was a Conservative, so that they were five to
_.?few, he would point to a single circumstance connected
with .i.,ateshead. They must know that in boroughs the licens-
ing of vutilie-houses, was a very important consideration with
respe.ot to returning Representatives to Parliantent. By the
contrivance of the friends of the Noble Marquis, they took care
*that the Conservative, a very respectable man, should
',aye no authority to withh(7as
This gentleman was by respect to the licensing system.
/had been selected, as businessllsbi a brewer, and, therefore, he
brine of that business, had no
'avower to act in erantin,.
This was
.ease the Noble Marquis had brltrunnses. the
But then Gateshead had only six ht before the House.
was not enough for its lar,,e Magistrate,,popaiisn tabenuniber which
added six, which would be grind to make the total number Government
abeut equal to the number of Magistrates _ only
in other towns of
similar population ; but of the six Magistrates
about seven miles out of the town; and after all one resided
it
found that there was an equal balance between thewouldConserve •
ives and the Whigs. But there was another important
Gateshead was divt4ecl from Newcastle by a river, u o n
ht
wark was from London ; so that if a eistiirbance took placer on
one side of the water it must extend to the other, and therefore
you could net consider the Magistrates on one side without
considering • those on the '.other. 'Now; what was the state
of the Newcastle Aliteistracy? • The ConSeryative • pirty
had a tnajori of one on the Gateshead side, but on the New-
castle side.one Coniervatire, and ten Whigs ; so that if you
added the unhappy Conservative in Gateshead to the one in
Newcastle, Lie Whigs would haits a• majority of Moie• than two
to one.—(Laughter.) Now he (the Lord Chancellor) knew
that the Noble Marquis was a consummate actor—( Laughter)
—and it was therefore to be wondered that his Noble Friend
did not calculate on the effect of these disclosures. He re- ,