Star.
London, England, 1823-05-15 00:00:00

SCOTCH BURGHS.

Lord A. HAMILTON ruse to complain, not of
there having been " no House" yesterday, but •f the
conduct of Honourable Gentlemen opposite, who, by
their agent, had prevented the presence of a sufficient
number of Rol:ow-able Arembe!s t constitute a
Rouse, and in consequence a motion of which he had
given. notice had dropped: this he .felt to be quite
undeserved, for. having fixed an early day fol- the dis-
cussion of the question, lte had consented to waive bi's
right to bring it forward on the day scrfized, in order
to accommodate the Right Honourable the Secretary
for Foreign Affairs, who was then-unable to attend
on, account of indisposition. On rising to make tha;
statement, he (Lord A. Hamilton) had intended to sar
titathe should avail himself of his privilege, and bring
forward .his motion this evening,. before the Rouse
should proceed with the Order of the Day for inquir-
ieng into the conduct of the Sheriff of Dublin; but
not wishing to obstruct that inquiry, he should re.
fiain trcnt tdking the redress that was open to him
by the forms of the House. Ile should, however,
bi ing forward his motion upon the first motion made
for the Iloose resolving into a .Committee of Supply.
Mr. Secretary CANNING said, that he. had been
the unfortunate cause of the Noble Lord's motion
hat ing been once put off, and severe abuts had alone
made him so. To the facts to which,the Noble Lord
'had alluded, he.could not speak; but he would re•
mind the Noble 1.014, that when kiwi? not.many
days ago, proposed Tuesday for the inquiry Which
he meant to move, a Right Honour able Friend (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) had claimed Tuesday,
as a day on which a motion sf bis own ti..pulat have
the precedence.
Mr. BROUGHAM said that .nothing could be
more candid than. the explanation of the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman; but he should have been glad if
the Right Rollout able Gentleman had altogether elks
claimed the system to which the Noble Lord hail al-
luded, for be was sure that there was no. Goveru-
ment that would nut be injured by such meusures,
whether carried on with or without its sanction.
Mr. 60[1LBU RN said, if a disclaimer were con-
sidered necessary, he would say, that he had had no
idea that there would not have been a House.
Mr. PHEL made a similar. .declaration. •
WILLIAM RoRTHWICK.
The LORD ADVOCATE inquired whether the Bon, Mem-
ber for Caine intended to bring forward the ruction of which he
had given notice for the 3d June, relative to W. M. Borthwiek ?
Mr. A BERCROM BY replied, that it was his fixed determi-
nation to bring the motion forward', rod it should be upon a day
on which his motion could take prec..ll..nce of others:
ESTABLISHED CDUltcli IN IRELAND.
Sir J. NEWPORT give notice that he would, at the com-
mencement of next Session, move fiwthe appointment of a Cant.
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mince to inquire into the state of the Estahlkhed Church of Ire.
land, the residence of the Clergy, and the rest Fruits Fupd.
PENITENTIARY.
Mr. G. BIe.NNF.; moved that a Select Committee be ap-
pointed to inquire into the state of the penitentiary at Millbank.
Sir J. YORKE took that opportunity of reading to the house
a letter which had been written by Mr. Copeland Hutchison to
the Committee. pointing out the existence of the scurvy amonest
the convicts. Tly• Hon Baronet grid, th:tt he drew the attention
of the Holm to the letter, hecause a notion had prevailed that
Mr. Hutchison had neglected to give watning of the scurvy.
BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.
Mr. WILLIAMS said, that the Members of the
House would be aware, that in the inquiry. which
that House had instituted into the conduct of the
Sheriff of Dublin, it had been thought necessary to
bring forward an individual oldie name of Wadden,
for the purpose of examination. In the course of.
that witness's cross-examination, an inquiry had been
made by an Hon. Member respecting some domestic
circumstances of a peculiar nature; and that the
question had created a great senaation, and had.
after much discussion. been ordered to be expunged
from the minutes of the evidence of the Committee.
In the cono.e of the discussion which took place on
that point, several Honourable Members had dis-
tincly intimated a confident expectation, founded
open their reliance on the discretion of those who
bad the management of the public press, that on that
particnlar occasion they would abstain totally from
giving publication to the subject. Accordingly, such
had been the good faith, and such the conformity
shewn to the opinion of the House by the Press of the,
l‘tetrc polls, that not one Paper had noticed the ques-
tion. It did so happen that he had that afternoon
Year(' one Honourable Member of that House say,
that until that day he had never heard of the ques-
tion. The Dublin Evening Mail, however, after
stating the questions which preceded that which had
afterwards been expunged from the Minutes, had.
proceeded to give the examination in the following
manner. The Hon. Member here read an extract;
which detailed at full length the examination which
the House had crdered to be expunged. The same
reasons which induced us to omit it in the first in-
stance, of course prevent us from giving it publicity
now. He thought that the feelings of the individual
who had been examined must be more hurt by such
a publication, than they would have been by a faithful
and liberal transcript of the evidence as it had ap-,
peared on the Minutes. He should therefore move,
that the Printer of The Dublin Evening Mail be or-
dered to appear at the Bar of the House.
Colonel BARRY wished to offer a few words. He
did not in any degree mean to justify the printer of
the Newspaper in que.tion in publishing an explana-
tion which had been expunged by universal consent.
He would say in justification of his own conduct in
putting the questions alluded to, that he had thought
them essential to public justice, and he had had no
reason since to change his opinion. He lamented
that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman had taken the
coarse which he had taken, for the mode which he
had adopted would give publicity to the whole cir-
cumstance, and it would now be circulated from one
end of the kingdom to the other. He would add,
that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman was wrong in
supposing that no other paper had noticed the exami-
nation ; for the paper to which he (Colonel Barry)
had drawn the attention of the House a few evenings
ago, had alluded to it in a very 'gross manner.
14r. BROUGH A M said,- that every publication of
the proceedings of chit House was, strictly speaking,
a breach of its privileges; but that it was only in ag-
gravated cases that the House felt it necessary to en-
force its privilege—the public utility overruling in
the minds of Members any disposition to complain in
ordinary occasions of a breach of privilege. He
thought that an aggravated breach of privilege more
Completely unjustifiable than the indecorous and ma-
lignant article which had just been referred to, had
never been before the House. While he called
to the recollection of the House, that none had ex-
pressed themselves more strongly than he had on the
occasion when the question had been first put, yet he
also reminded them that no threat had been held out;
nothing but an appeal 'to the good sense and good
feeling of the parties particularly addressed. He
should now vote against the motion of his Hon.
Friend, not for the reason given by the Hon. Mem-
ber who had just spoken ; but because the House had
long ago, by an annunciation o: absolute impunity,
given to all persons leave to violate the privileges of
the House. If it were not irregular to interrupt the
debate, he should will to preface what he had to say
by the Clerk reading floor the Journals of the House,
their proceedings on the 22d of July last, when
Messrs. Ilope and Menzies had appeared at the bar.
On that occasion, after the House had committed
such a dereliction of duty as they had then commit-
ted—after they_ had then abandoned everything likel
an assertion of their privileges—after they had joined
by their cheers in the triumph of those who had
violated their privileges—after they had, for the
fiat time in the history of Parliament, so far
stultified and degraded themselves by au indecorous
expression of triumph at their own humiliation—he
had taken the liberty of stating that he would never
again allow, without entering his protest against it,
• the vengeance of that House to visit a poor unpro-
tected printer who might ignorantly violate their pri-
vileges, when they had passed over a Law Officer of
the Crown who had committed an infinitely grosser
violation, and who bad refused to palliate his offence
by denying that his object ia wa icing. the letter had
been to produce a personal quarrel wish a Member
of that House for doing his duty as a Member of
Parliament. 'When such an offence had been visited
by no punishment, and when the majority of the
Hotise, headed by some of the Members of the Cabi-
net, had, by their triumphal cheers, told the House
that their privileges were of so fine a nature that they
might bend to an insult from an Officer of the
Crown, but that when violated by a printer, the ven-
geance of the House ought to be hurled red-hot at
his head, and he himselt overwhelmed by fines and
imprisonment, he (Mr. Brougham) had given a
pledge, in conformity with which, even if he voted
alone, he would now vote against any step taken to
punish a breach of privilege; because ire saw that
their privileges had nothing of justice or manliness
• in them, and that they were only used to aid the
purpose of one party, and withdrawn when sought
to be made available by another. What signified the
preseut breach of privilege in comparison with that
to which he had alluded? The only way in which
he thought the house could rote for any further pi u-

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