Star.
London, England, 1821-05-09 00:00:00

•BREACH OP PRIVILEGE.

Mr. BENNETT rose, pursuant to notice, to call
the attention of the House to a paragraph in a
Weekly Newspaper called John Bull. lie said, that
as long as he had been a Member of that House, he
had been at all times unwilling to visit hastily the
occasional abuses into which public prints might fall,
as he knew that it was generally very difficult for a
paper to enter into the discussion of public affairs,
and the conduct of public men, without lapsing into
an abuse, sometimes, of the useful liberty of inquiry
which they enjoyed. Upon the present occasion, he
had to direct the attention of the House to an abuse
of so aggravated a nature, that be conceived he
would be unfit to sit among the Members of that
House, if he did not take immediate steps to have it.
laid before the House, to be dealt with as in their
judgment it deserved. The House would recollect,
that on Friday last, in consequence of a question put
by the Hon. Member for Ross-shire (Mr. Mackenzie),
he took the opportunity of stating that the report of
a conversation which appeared in a Morning l'aper,
and which represented him (Mr. Bennett) as reflect-
ing severely upon the character of the Lord Presi-
dent of Scotland, was in words and substance inac-
curate. Under these circumstances he could not, in
justice to himself, and to the individual concerned,
hesitate one moment in disavowing the words thus
erroneously imputed to him, and this disavowal,
partly from the low tone in which he spoke, and
partly from the inattention which is paid to the con-
versations which. do not generally interest the Pub-
lie, was not conveyed to the Public iu that way in

I.: Sl:\ EN-pENcE.

which the proceedings of that Ibuse generally were?
No report, therefore, of his disclaiming :the refiec•
Lions which were attributed to him appeared in any
of the Newspapers, if he ;night be allowed to allude
to them. The Hon. Member opposite (Mr. Mac-
kenzie), however, expres,ed his entire satisfaction at
what had Mien from him, and there the matter
rested until the Saturday following, when an adver-
tisement appeared in the Courier Newspaper, pur-
porting to be a statement of what had fallen from
him (Mr. Bennett). With this statement he did not
quarrel. It was in substance, though not literally
correct ; he objected not to it ; he complained not of
it. This paragraph was republished in the Weekly
Newspaper called John Bull, of the date of the 6th
of May. He would take the liberty of reading it to
the House. He then read as follows:
_

" Tuft LOAD PRZSIDENT AND Ma. Hatiay Bowery.
" We have been requested to republish the following para-
graph, which was inserted in the Courier of last night :
" ' The following reply, made by Mr. Bennett, in the House
of Commons last night, was not distinctly heard in the gallery,
and in consequence is very imperfectly reported in the Morning
Papers. It was given by the Honourable Member on the ob-
servation of Mr. Mackenzie, that the Public Press, in reporting
the discussion of the Army Estimates, which took place on a
former evening, had erroneously attributed to Mr. Bennett a
serious reflection upon the conduct of the Lord President of the
Court of Session : !Ir. Bennett expressed himself much obliged
to the Honourable Member, in affording him an opportunity of
refuting what he had been misrepresented, in the Newspapers,
to have said in the debate to which the Honourable Member
alluded. Mr. Bennett denied that he had, on that occasion, cast
any reflection on the conduct of the Lord President of the Court
of Session in Scotland, or of those who had acted with him, in
the matter that was under discussion. He regretted that any-
thing which passed should have occasioned any unpleasant feeling
to the Lord President and his friends. Had anything appeared
to him in the conduct of the Learned Judge which called for
censure, he would have brought it forward by the fair and manly
course of making a tArelar motion on the subject.' "
—On this paragraph so copied from the Courier, the
writer in the Weekly Newspaper thus commented: •
" Now, the truth of this is, that the Lord President has a
son, a Gentleman of high honour and courage, who no sooner
heard of Mr. Henry Grey Bennett's speech, in which he reflected
upon his father, than he put himself into the Edinburgh Mail,
and started forthwith for London ; where having arrived, he
sent Mr. henry Grey Bennett a message. Mr. Henry Grey
Bennett referred Mr. Mackenzie to that general voachee for the
whole party, Sir Ronald Ferguson—(Laughter)--and the result
of the communication was (as usual)—au apology; which was
made according to agreement, on Friday night, in the House of
Commons, by Mr. Henry Grey Bennett, but in so low a tone
of voice, that had it not been for the kindness of the Courier, it
might not have been so generally understood, and perfectly ap-
preciated, as we trust it is at present."
—Now the objections which he (Mr. Bennett) had to
take to this paragraph, was, that it charged a Mem-
ber of that House with having, in the first instance,
told an untruth. But it accused him also, of having
basely, and in a cowardly manner, broken his faith—
for that was the real nature of the imputation ; and
of having compromised his honour. He did not
know that it was necessary for him to use many
words in disclaiming a libel of this scandalous de-
scription ; but he believed it was impossible to sum
up, in a few words, anything that could be more of-
fensive to the feelings of any individual Member—
(Hear, hear)—no more offensive form of words
could have been employed ; for he had no hesitation
in declaring to the House, that of an untruth, at once
so disgracefully uttered, and so meanly retracted, he
never could be guilty—(Hear, hear).—He did not
wish to wage war against this Paper, or to injure its
Printer, but his object in the motions which he should
feel it his duty to make on the subject, would he, if
possible, to know the author of the article in question
hear).—As to the Paper itself, he did not
wish to say anything ; its character was well known.
As to the comments of the Press generally, he could
assure the House that it never was his wish to with-
, draw himself from them. He did not object to the
' comments of the Daily Press, even its licentious-
ness, though he had suffered from it. Indeed, he
should be sorry to shelter himself from any fair stric-
tures on his conduct; and it was to him a satisfactory
reflection, for the sake of the interests of the country,
that wherever the English language was read, stric-
tures upon the conduct of every public man were
carried by the circulation of the Daily Press. How-
ever, it ought not to be endured that a Member
should be grossly and wickedly maligned ; for he
would say, that no Member cou'd b. base eirough to
compromise his honour in the manner described in
the article in question—(Hear, hear).—lle did not
think it was necessary for him to trouble the House
with any further observations.• Ile would conclude
by moving, that the article be read by the Clerk.
The Paper was then handed in, and the paragraph
read by the Clerk.

Mr.BENNETT then moved, " That the said pa-
ragraph was a false and scandalous libel, and a
breach of the privileges of the House."
Mr. MACKENZIE said, he felt it his duty to offer
a few observations to the House, as his name had
been implicated in the proceedings. He would not
interfere in the question of the propriety of the pro-
ceeding ; but being somewhat concerned in the trans-
action, he must be permitted to say, in justice to the
Honourable Member for Shrewsbury, that so far as
he was acquainted with the facts, the insinuations
contained in the comment of the IVeckly Newspaper
were false and malicious. He could state positively
that no apology was made by the Honourable Mem-
ber, as stated in the paragraph ; in fact, no apology
could have been made, fir the nature of the circum-
stances did not lead to the contemplation of an ago.
logy at all. The expres,ions contained in the Morn-
ing Paper, purporting to be a report of -what fell
from the Honourable Member in allusion to the Lord
President of Scotland, had they been spoken, would
have, undoubtedly, justified the strong feelings of the
friends of the Lord President ; but the moment the
expressions were brought under the I loneurahle Mem-
ber's notice, he dii, in the handsomest manner, de-
clare that he never had used them ; and his explana-
tion did, as it was calculated, give the highest satis-
faction to all parties. Indeed, it was the impressit n
of those who were most deeply concerned in the mat-
ter, that no explanation could have been more satin-
. factor y. lie felt it to be hi, duty to add, that the