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Article HOUSE OF COMMONS. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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House Of Commons.
then ensued as to the meaning and extent of the " responsibility " which Lord ALTHORP took upon himself . The Noble Lord ' s own explanation of it was as follows : —He had assumed the responsibility , but had not undertaken to vouch for the truth : what he meant was thisthat though he had heard such a statement , he would take upon himself not to give up the name of the person from whom the information
proceeded . This observation he had made in reply to a question put , and if his saying so gave offence he was answerable for that . —Col . L . HAY had heard similar representations respecting other Irish Members , and took upon himself the responsibility of saying so . —Sir F . BURDETT now declared that if his Noble Friend and the Hon . Gent , did not come forward and pledge themselves that they ivould not further depart from
the rules of the House , he should- move that they be committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms . The SPEAKER impressed upon both the Hon . Members ( Lord Althorp and Mr . Shiel ) that what they should he required to do had in it nothing in the sli ghtest degree degrading . In the course of some further discussion Mr . COBBETT gave the following account of the matter :
It is as if a man came into a company , and said , " There is a person in this room who has stolen a horse ; " one of the party requires him to be more explicit ; he replies , " You stole the horse ; " the other rejoins , " It is a He ; tell me your authority . " The answer to that is , " I ivill not give up my authority , 1 take all the responsibility upon
myself . " Is not that the same thing as standing in the place of the person who first uttered the accusation ?—The SPEAKER , after a temperate exposition of his duty , called upon Mr . Shiel to assure the House that the matter now before it should not be prosecuted by him without its walls , but remain , as at present , entirely confined to its sole jurisdiction . —Mr . SHIEL remained silent ; hut Lord ALTHORP immediately
declared , that as he had not taken offence in consequence of any thing which had been said , he was quite ready to assure the House that he should not adopt any hostile proceedings without the walls of the House ( hear , hear ) . —This heightened the indignation of Mr . O'CONNELL , , who declared , that though the Noble Lord had not taken offence , he had given great offence . The Noble Lord was not plaintiff but
defendant in the cause . —The SPEAKER considered the call of the House to have been , that the Noble Lord would not out of its walls himself any further prosecute or respond to any call ( cries of " No , no !) To that exent , at all events , he considered himself charged by the House to call upon the Learned Gent ., as well as upon the Noble Lord , to declare ' their intensions . —Lord ALTHORP would not promise that he ivould not respond to a call . —Sir F . BURDETT moved that both parties
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
House Of Commons.
then ensued as to the meaning and extent of the " responsibility " which Lord ALTHORP took upon himself . The Noble Lord ' s own explanation of it was as follows : —He had assumed the responsibility , but had not undertaken to vouch for the truth : what he meant was thisthat though he had heard such a statement , he would take upon himself not to give up the name of the person from whom the information
proceeded . This observation he had made in reply to a question put , and if his saying so gave offence he was answerable for that . —Col . L . HAY had heard similar representations respecting other Irish Members , and took upon himself the responsibility of saying so . —Sir F . BURDETT now declared that if his Noble Friend and the Hon . Gent , did not come forward and pledge themselves that they ivould not further depart from
the rules of the House , he should- move that they be committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms . The SPEAKER impressed upon both the Hon . Members ( Lord Althorp and Mr . Shiel ) that what they should he required to do had in it nothing in the sli ghtest degree degrading . In the course of some further discussion Mr . COBBETT gave the following account of the matter :
It is as if a man came into a company , and said , " There is a person in this room who has stolen a horse ; " one of the party requires him to be more explicit ; he replies , " You stole the horse ; " the other rejoins , " It is a He ; tell me your authority . " The answer to that is , " I ivill not give up my authority , 1 take all the responsibility upon
myself . " Is not that the same thing as standing in the place of the person who first uttered the accusation ?—The SPEAKER , after a temperate exposition of his duty , called upon Mr . Shiel to assure the House that the matter now before it should not be prosecuted by him without its walls , but remain , as at present , entirely confined to its sole jurisdiction . —Mr . SHIEL remained silent ; hut Lord ALTHORP immediately
declared , that as he had not taken offence in consequence of any thing which had been said , he was quite ready to assure the House that he should not adopt any hostile proceedings without the walls of the House ( hear , hear ) . —This heightened the indignation of Mr . O'CONNELL , , who declared , that though the Noble Lord had not taken offence , he had given great offence . The Noble Lord was not plaintiff but
defendant in the cause . —The SPEAKER considered the call of the House to have been , that the Noble Lord would not out of its walls himself any further prosecute or respond to any call ( cries of " No , no !) To that exent , at all events , he considered himself charged by the House to call upon the Learned Gent ., as well as upon the Noble Lord , to declare ' their intensions . —Lord ALTHORP would not promise that he ivould not respond to a call . —Sir F . BURDETT moved that both parties