Star.
London, England, 1820-09-19 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, SEPTEMBER 18.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at a quarter before
four o'clock.

THE QUEEN.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, soon
after the admission of strangers, and before order
had been obtained, moved the appointment of a
Select Committee, to inspect the Journals of the
Lords relative to the state of the Bill fcr Divorcing and
Degrading her Majesty.—On the question being put,
Mr. Serjeant ONSLOW rose, and observed that,
after all that had passed upon this subject, after tht
strong expressions used in the debate regarding the
nature of the pending proceeding, and the opinions
so industriously circulated in all quarters, it was fit,
for the honour and character of the House, as well
as for the satisfaction of the country, that the In-
quiry here should be conducted with the utmost pos-
sible solemnity. He submitted, therefore, whether
it might 'not be expedient that a Bill should be
brought in to enable the House of Commons to exa-
mine witnesses upon' oath. He did not himself feel
authorized to propose such a Bill : a man so private
and unknown as he was could scarcely hope to have
influence enough to carry it through, but he trusted
that the Executive Government would take the sub-
ject into consideration.

Mr. CREEVEY' was in doubt whether he rightly
understood the Honourable Gentleman. Within the
last few days reports had been circulated of an in-
tended motion on the part of persons who were to
be looked upon as the prosecutors of the Queen, to
induce the House to renounce the right it now en-
joyed, and had always possessed since it had been a
House of Commons, of examining witnesses at the
Bar. He was not sure, therefore, whether what the
Honourable Gentleman had proposed was not in-
tended to sound the-country on the subject, and whe-
ther the suggestion had not been made with the pri-
vity of Ministers:—CMr.Serjearg ONSLOW said, across
the floor, " On my honour, no."J—He did not say
that such was the design of the Honourable-Gentle-
man, but it might have that effect. If such a ru-
mour were true, and if, after having degraded the
King, the Queen, and the other House of Parlia-
ment, Ministers ,proceeded to deprive the House of
Commons of its undoubted and most Valuable pri-
vilege of examining witnesses, the degradation would
indeed be complete— (llear, hear).—'Then, indeed,
would such a motion, it carried, operate as a Pro-
clamation for Parliamentary Reform ; for what could
the people think of a House of Commons, which,
after for ages requiring that evidence should be given
at the Bar in every paltry divorce cause, even after
verdicts and other proceedings in Courts below, con-
sented, in this greatest of all divorce causes, that no
witnesses should be openly adduced ?—(Hear, hear);
—The more speedy the steps taken to pass here the
odious measure now before the Peers, the more rapidly
and irrecoverably would the. Houle of Commons be-
come an object of endless derision and boundless con-
tempt with the nation.

Mr. Serjeant ONSLOW had hardly thought it
possible that he should have been so much misun-
derstood. His objett was not to degrade the House.
of Commons, nor to induce it to forego its 'right of
examining witnesses, but to suggest the propriety ofi
a Bill to make those examinations more solemn by
giving them the sanction of an oath. • He assured
the Howe, upon his honour, that he, had thrown out
the hint without connexion with any man in offize—
indeed, without having communicated it to any indi-;
vidual whatever—(Hear).
Mr. BERNAL felt satisfied that his Hon. and
Learned Friend had done nothing to merit the sus-
picion cast upon him. For his own part be felt
bound to protest against any extension of the power
of the House by communicating .to it the power of
taking evidence upon oath. Nothing could be more,