§ Sir Frederick Trenchrose to make a complaint as to the state of the prison-rooms belonging to the House. He had had the misfortune to be the first inhabitant of them, and mere accident prevented his confinement in the same apartment with the hon. Member for Ipswich. The rooms were so constructed, that it was impossible for one Member not to pass through the apartment of the other, and frequently this could not be done without the utmost impropriety and indecency. That no inconvenience of this kind had arisen in his case was owing to good fortune; for the hon. Member for Ipswich, instead of being on his way to Dover and Calais, was comfortably asleep in his bed in his own lodgings. He had no doubt that had they been thus awkwardly circumstanced, the hon. Member for Ipswich would have treated him with the utmost courtesy, and he should have endeavoured to return it; but still the situation might have been inconvenient. He was suffering at the time under severe indisposition, and he might have been compelled to go through the hon. Member's room; and two men of less mild disposition and habits might have found the situation very disagreeable. If the object were to keep quarrelsome Members asunder, no arrangement could be more absurd. Of course he imputed no blame to the Speaker, who was 508 not at all responsible for evils existing in the construction of the present House of Commons; but although not an architect, having some knowledge of the subject, he could state, that no arrangement could be worse adapted to the purpose than the prison-rooms. From what he had observed in the recent change of tone in the conduct of debates, it might ere long be found necessary to put a great number of Members in the cells, and as (according to the proverb) a burnt child dreads the fire, he apprehended that serious consequences would ensue should he ever again become an inmate of them. He would, however, endeavour to conduct himself so as not to incur the displeasure of the House, that he might run as little chance as possible of such a calamity.
§ Mr. Wasonreferred to the letter he had written to the Speaker, expressing his sense of the courtesy shown to him by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and complained of the order of the House, for which he had found no precedent. No Member ought to be ordered into custody unless he had contravened the orders of the House, or refused to comply with its just demands.
§ The Speakerstated, that he had received information from the Sergeant-at-Arms, that the prison-rooms of the House were not well adapted to the purpose. As far as the evil was capable of a remedy he would take care that it was remedied.
§ Subject dropped.