The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-09 00:00:00

THE TARIFF-TIMBER DUTIES.

Nbehl ponsae na question from an Hon. Gentleman,
v could not learn, relative to the duties to
aidnsoaliee w
r to
timber,e
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said (as
we understood) that the timber imported since October
nb bond
oNfvobuolndd p; abyutth et dutyhe tnninb
eexistence
4Waw
hs te,naint dwnaos now
aikne
bond, would pay the duty of that period at which it
was imported.
CASE
larr.yS
forll l
Ireland,
l as an
itnh ahti
ss epeliancge, thhee Nv
eonbtlue
red Lord,to ask
ke
himS e-
OP MR; •BIDDULPII.
Mr.
ac question respecting a matter of which he (Mr. Shiel)
had given notice. It appeared that Mr. Biddulph,
Magistrate of King's county of considerable respectabi-
lity, was fired at some time ago, and two persons
Colville and another were tried for firing at him. No
less than three trials took place with reference to this
matter, two under the late Government. At the last
trial a complaint was made by Lord Charleville, respect-
ing the constitution of the jury. The last trial
took place at the late Spring
Assizes, when the
prisoners were acquitted. It appeared that, on
that trial Mr. Keating a man of distinguished ability
was sent down as counsel. Upon the e examination of
Mr. Biddulph, it appeared that he in his capacity of
Magistrate, had conveyed advice to the two . persons
charged with the felony to abscond and fly the country. On
the cross-examination by Mr. Murphy, he (Mr. Murphy)
aid, " I shall now leave you in the hands of the Attorney-
General." Mr. Keating was then the representative of the
Attorney-General. After this Mr. Castles, Mr. Buddulph's
steward, stated he had been authorised by Mr. Biddulph
-to advise the prisoner to fly the country. Mr. Biddulph
.had since been dismissed by her Majesty's Government.
Re (Mr. Slid) wished to know the day on which the
trial had taken place upon which Mr. Biddplph was
dismissed.
Lord ELIOT said, he believed the Right Hon. and
learned Gentleman had stated with perfect accuracy
the facts of the case. He (Lord Eliot) regretted that
-the Right Honourable Gentleman had not given him
intimation of the specific question he had intended to
:put upon which he desired an answer, but he would take
-care to ascertain the dates, and let the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman know. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland, upon
-the investigation of the circumstances, had dismissed Mr.
Siddulph from' the commission of the peace for King's
-County. The first intimation that Government had
;received upon the ,subject was, from a question ;

put by a noble person in another place.
Under these circumstances he hoped the Right Hon. and
Leari;ed Geatlumail wond ..;atisil;_d
taken by the Government and the Attorney-General.
Mr. SHIEL expressed his satisfaction at the reply of
the Noble Lord.
BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.

Mr. ROEBUCK moved the Order of the Day for re-
suming the adjourned debate on the breach of privilege.
The Order of the Day having been read,
Mr. ROEBUCK presented a petition from the bo-
rough of. Reading, stating that the petitioners had heard
of the circumstances that led to the debate of Fri-
day night, that they believed that the charges con-
tained in the petition against the return for that
borough were and are true, and that the object of the
arrangement that had been made was to prevent the dis-
closure of the corrupt practices that had prevailed ;
they, therefore, prayed the House to grant a Select
Comittee of inquiry without delay.
ELECTION PROCEEDINGS—ADJOURNED DE-
BATE ON THE APPOINTMENT OF A SE-
LECT COMMITTEE.

Major BERESFORD said that it was his intention to
address the House on Friday evening, when he was per-
sonally attacked, and he hoped that he would not now
be precluded from addressing the House.
The SPEAKER said that the question should be put
first.

The question having been then put,
Major BERESFORD said, he was anxious to address
the House, especially as he was not in the habit of occu-
pying its time on a subject in which he was person-
ally concerned, and in which his honour was concerned.
—(Hear, hear.) He rose for the purpose of saying
that he considered this Committee should be appointed
—(Hear, hear)— which would not be so unparliamentary
as the precedent which the Hon. and Learned Gentle-
man opposite (Mr. Roebuck) sought to establish. He
believed the question of the lion. and Learned Member
was unparliamentary, and he should refuse to answer it,
though if it were put by a competent authority,
he would not.—(Hear, near.) He did not object to the Hon.
Gentleman's request for a Select Committee, but he did
object, and with reason to the manner in which he asked
for it—the matter he brought forward—and the tone and
gesture with which he enforced it. The Hon. and
Learned Gentleman had charged him personally with
bribery and corruption, and he stated that a rumour
was abroad to the same effect, but he thought
the Honourable and Learned Member should have
known that rumour had been called a lying jade, but he,
too, heard a rumour, perhaps as well founded as that of
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, that he (Mr. Roebuck)
was a Member of that House without a qualification, and
that he swore to that qualification the very day on which
it was executed for him in London. That was one of the
rumours which he (Major B.) had heard, and, perhaps, as
well founded as that upon which the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman charged him. He had heard a rumour,
also, that not patriotism alone, but that bad feeling, also,
had excited him to his present measure. (Hear,
hear.) Perhaps that was unfounded also, and he had
not come to point the finger of scorn and malevolence at
any person; but he thought the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman was trying to establish a
dangerous precedent, and one which ought not
to be tolerated. It was better they should
go before a Committee regularly and fairly
appointed to vindicate their characters, then to be called
on to do so in that House, the arena of public discus-
sion.—(Herr, hear.) He had said that the House
and Learned Gentleman was at liberty to draw what con-
clusions he pleased, and the Hon. Gentleman drew false
conclusions, which he always would do as long as he argued
upon false premises. The Hon. Member for Cockermouth
had also made a remark, which he could not assent to.
He knew no reason why, because a man was accused, he
should be judged guilty if he did not immediately appeal
to some tribunal for the purpose of clearing himself. He
protested against any such conclusions being drawn, and
he trusted that the House would grant the Committee.
Mr. C. WYNN had moved the adjournment of the
debate, for the purpose of affording himself an opportunity
of maturely considering what would be the effect of the
Honourable and Learned Gentleman's moiion. That
motion appeared to him to be of too general a
nature. The Honourable Member had brought forward
nothing specific for the House to inquire into.
The Honourable and Learned Member had brought
forward certain charges against certain individuals, but
there was nothing definite in them—the charges
ought to have been specified. There had been one case
mentioned in which it had been stated that a bond
had been given with a conditional penalty to be enforced
on the withdrawal of the petition, if the Member did not
resign his seat within a certain time. In another
instance it had been stated that a sum of money
had been laid down. If a corrupt contract could be es •
tablished no doubt that would be a case of breach of
privilege. But there might be a case in which
a person not being able to support the expense
of defending his seat and not wishing an investigation to
go forward affecting his character during his absence,
might say to his opponent " If you wish merely to get a
new election, you shall have an opportunity of going to
one, for I will resign my seat." Of any such arrange-
ment as that the House had no right to complain.
He thought the regular course was for the Hon. Member
to bring forward a separate charge in each case, and
upon that charge the House would determine what
course it should adopt in each special case. In each
case the facts and charges might be taken down as
the groun:e_ upon which the House acted, and it would
then be entered on the Journals as the evidence of
that ground. He had studiously abstained from enter-
ing into the merits of the case that had been referred to,
but he thought that the adoption of the course he had
proposed would be consistent with justice ; as it must be
clear to every Hon. Member that it would be much
better that each ease should be disposed of according to
its own merits, than that fishing or roving commissions
should be appointed.
Mr. WARD could assure the Right Hon. Gentleman
who had just sat down, that nothing was further from
the desire of any person on that side of than to further
the issuing of a fishing or roving commission ; but
there were certain allegations which had been made
by his Learned Friend, which he believed could
be proved. He believed that his Learned Friend
had understated his case, and that more might be proved
than he had asserted. The allegations that had been
made had in a great measure been confirmed by the
conduct of certain Members. In Nottingham so clear
was the evidence of malpractices that one of the Hon.
Members had. found it so impossible to defend his
seat that he had accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
The object of his honourable ambition was a seat in
that House. He stood two contests for Nottingham,
and that was no small proof of sincerity.—(Hear.) Why
had he withdrawn ? His withdrawal was itself, under the
circumstances, all the confirmation the House could require
as a -ground for investigating the facts, and those facts he
believed would be proved in Committee. With regard to
the Gallant Major who had just addressed the House,
no one could suppose that he was cognisant of what had
taken place at Harwich, but still as the reports were rife
it was necessary that the matter should undergo
investigation. They had heard from his Hon. Friend,
the Member for Bath, something about a Parliamen-
tary Napoleon going down to Nottingham, but it ap-
peared that there was also a Parliamentary Csar, who had
been down to Harwich, and this Veni- vidi-vici-Gentlem an
had swept everything before him the strength of his
arms—(Laughter)—and in that town 83 objections had
been served on one side, and 81 on the other, a number
which included a very large proportion of the
voters.—(Loud Laughter. He did not say they
had all been bribed, but the objection had been
served. They had been told, and he believed proof
would be adduced before the Committee of the fact
that in the cnnrse of two or three months the House were
to be deprived of the Gallant Major's service, with no ex-
planatien of the fact, except the inconvenience of allow-
ing the allegations of the petition to be tried before the
House. He thought such charges ought not to be made
without being thoroughly investigated. They were told
that there was at that moment a bond in existence pro-
viding that a penalty of 2,000/. should be paid
unless the constituency were dealt with in a par-
ticular manner, and landed over to a particular
individual without opposition. He believed that fact
would be proved before the Committee. This could
then, be called a fishing Committee, grounded as
. . _

was upon certain allegations made by his Hon. Friend,
He would entreat the House, to pause before deciding
upon the course to be adopted. This was not a
fishing Committee ; it was not a morning Com-
mittee, but one confined and limited to cer-
tain cases adduced. Let them give such a Com-
mittee the adequate powers and authority, and
they might depend upon it, that ,those who
wished to stop the rapid progress of corruption and
bribery at elections in this coantry would find
that they never had so good an opportunity of
effecting their desires. He had no party or
personal feeling upon this question all he
wished to see was the axe laid to the roof of a system, un-
dermining the morality of the co ;ntry. In the present in-
' stance, they had to deal not with mal-practices sanctioned
by election committees, but with malpractices, in which the
name and character of that House were constantly mixed
up, and which were most dangerous to the moral
health of the nation. He trusted that the Right
not Hou. Baronet, the First Lord of the Treasury, would
throw any obstacle in the way of the inquiry now sought
for, which inquiry it was his interest as well as that of
the House at large to promote. He hoped that all due
powers would be given to the Committee, for the purpose
of bringing the just censure of the House upon those
who might be proved to have infringed upon its liberties,
and to have compromised its character with the country.
Sir R. H. INGLIS said, it was very true that
the present could not, in the common sense of the
word, be called a party question. inasmuch as the
allegations made by the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman opposite affected both sides of the ,
House. Not having had the advantage of being present
on Friday night when the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman put his question, he would take the liberty
of expressing, with respect to it, that and which
he should have personally desired to do, which had
not been done by other:. He certainly should have en-
deavoured that that question should have been put not
without opposition from an individual at least. He
should have endeavoured to have resisted the inquiry
supposing the Committee were granted, he would ask by
what course of proceeding would the result so confi-
dently anticipated by the Hon. and Learned Member for
Bath be arrived at? Did he mean to riake individuals cri-
minate themselves. Did he mean to take the evidence
of informers as to practices in vvVeh they themselves were
implicated ? If so, he would c Ada! y have followed the
example of the Old Bailey, bvt would not so satis-
factorily arrive at the conviction to punishment of
the parties accused. For those reasons he would certainly
vote against the motion of the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman. •

Mr. R. YORKE simply rose to quote an au-
thority which would be respected upon this
subject which had been brought before the House,