The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-06-28 00:00:00

THE STATES]

impeachment, for sending the case to a trial, or for ori-
ginating a Bill of pains end penalties, or a Bill of At-
tainder, that therefore there should not be an investiga-
tion? If the Home insisted on Ministers bringing In a
Bill without a prey' investigation by the House, they
would surrender all the functions which Parliament had
exercised for centuries. He certainly hail seen in one of
those morning publications which misled the pablit
nearly as often as the morning Caine. that a Bill of At-
tainder could not originate in that House; there could
not he a greater mistake. la answer to the general
aspersions which the. Noble Earl had thought proper to
cast on Secret C • tees, he would tell the Noble Earl,
that high as was his rank, and great and deserved as
was the general estimation in whit h he was held, that
he would not on that night have been in that House
freely expressing his sentiments in debate, hail it nut
been for the labours of some of the Secret Counnitters
that be had attacked. He (the Lord Chancellor) con-
sitirred that the proposed Secret ::::: ittee was a shield
and protection to the Queen. If he were told that the
Queen did not choose to have her conduct submitted to
it, he would answer, that it was his duty to tell her Ma-
jesty, in the most respectful manner in Which he could do
so, and to tell any other Queen Consort who tuight he
placed in her Majesty's situation, that he must support the
appointment of a Secret Committee, on the principle that
her Majesty ought to be better defended than by the re-
spostsibility of Ministers. He knew that a number of
most excellent and virtuous men attached uneasiness to
the consideration that the individual Members of a
Secret I 'ommittee might subsealuently be called upon to
*lt as Judges on that into which, as Members of that
Secret Committee, they hail previously inquired. Bust
how could that be helped, if a public Committee were to
enter into that previous inquiry: Mel it ever been con-
tended, when the House of Co 11111 l 0114 rattle to a deter-
mination to impeach, that no Member should vote for
that impeachment who hail been un the Secret Commit-
tee, to whom the previous investigation of the circum-
stances had been referred ? If such a principle were
established, all proceedings of such a nature must ori-
ginate without the benefit of a previous inquiry into the
grounds for them. With respect to the speeches of the
Learned Counsel yesterday at the Bar, it certainly could
not he imputed to hint (the Lord Chancellor) that lie
was a velocipede Judge, or averse to proper delay; but
lie et say, that considerable as was the ability dis-
played in those speeches, they Jill not, from beginning
to end, furnish a single argument in favour of any delay
in the present stage of the proceeding. If the charge
were made, and the witnesses adduced, it would be very
different. Although lie certainly contended fur the
reins iple which had been a hundred times established in
practice, that a Peer might enter into a previous inquiry,
in a matter on at hick he might be subsequently called
upon to judge, he admitted that the probability that
he :night thus be afterwards called upon to judge,
e nuld render him extremely anxious in the pre-
vious investigation. In the words of one of the high-
est legal authorities which this country could boast,
" he would make a covenant with God and himself, that
neither affection nor any oilier undue motive should
press on his judgment." He is •suld do his duty as he
trnsted he always had done, to the best of his ability;
keying the consequences to the reflection of his
countrymen, and hoping that (Sod would pardon him if
he did wrong.
The Marquis of La sfseowx most so!serinly declared,
that if he could bring himself to think that the !louse
was in a situation in which consistently natio its own
honour, and a due sense of public justirss, and with a
prospect either of clueing this painful inquiry alto-
gether, or of being enabled to enter upon it with as.
increased means of discharging satisfectorlly Its Im-
portant functions, it oontil proceed in the course re-
commended by his Majesty's Ministers, he sl Id he
the first to approve of that course. He wished to
state why he was not of that opi : anal in doing
so he would confine himself 'toast strictly to the ques-
tion before the House. Ile was bound to ask himself,
first, if that peculiar species of pr acceding which, af-
ter repeated adjournments, had liven avowed by the
Ministers of the Crown as that to which they would
adhere, was consistent with the proper discharge of
the functions of the House ; and, secondly, whether
it was calculated and necessary (and if not necessary,
it could not he calestlattel) to further time ends of jus-
tire ? As to the first p • t, the compatibility of the
proposed proceeding, with the functions which be-
longed to the House, he must say, that throughout the
speeches of the Noble Earl, and of the Noble and
Learned Lord, they hail done that which he con-
tended nu Noble Lord had a right to do. They hail
assumed a right to determine iu what way the
Commons would deal with an accusation against
an individual preferred by the Crown.—(Hear
But he would allude to the votes of the !louse, to which
he was entitled, and, in the present circumstances,
hound to look. What dill he there find: Ifid he find
that the communication which had been naade from the

Crown was dismissed ? Quite the contrary. He found
nut only that that rot ttttt unication was still before the
House, but that a proposif to defer the considera-
tion of it for six months had been rejected. Was lie
not thence to infer that it was tl.e declared opinion of
the House of Commons that communication in
question ought to be considered? Their Lordships
might, therefore, defeat the ends of public justice, and
abdicate their own functions, if they proceeded to dis-
qualify themselves by a previous examination into
a subject on which they might afterwards be called
npon to judge. He denied that there was any
analogy between th;• and the • ase of the House of
Commons, ritei by the Noble and Learned Lord.—
The proceeding adverted to in the House of Com-
mons was a proceeding within the House itself. But
for their Lordships, while such a proceeding was pend-
ing, thus to disqualify th?mselves for bring eventual
Judges, was inimical to all sonad principle. Even if
that bar did nut exist, he still thought the mode of
proceeding by a Secret Committee to be most insx-
pedieet, because most unjust. He agreed with the
Noble Lord on the Woolsack, that this House was
competent to originate Bills of Pains and Penalties ;
yet the Noble and Learned Lord must be aware that,
since the Revolution, it had not been the practice of
this House to introduce them, and it was consequently
extremely difficult to furnish precedents of such pro-
ceedings. He believed the last instance, previous to
the Revolution, was the Bill of Pains and Penalties
brought in against Lord Clarendon. The Noble and
Learned Lord would recollect that there had already
been one es-M►fe inquiry in this case ; it was notorious
that her Majesty had already been subjected to the ex-
tra-judicial inquirifs of a Conantiuion, which had been
sent out from this country with the knowledge and
by the advice of his Majesty's Ministers, if not
by the sanction of the Noble and Learned Lord.
He was not prepared to contend that that Commission
was unnecessary ; he was ignorant how far it had