§ Lord John Russellrose to bring under the notice of the House a question regarding its privileges, which he felt to be of very great importance, and which ought to be decided after the most mature consideration. If the publication of the Report of the Poor-law Committee had merely referred to such a breach of the privileges of that House as had on former occasions been committed, he should not have hesitated to proceed according to the forms and practice of the House; and in order to state what that practice was, he should merely refer to the last resolution of the House upon that subject, dated May 1832, and on which, after various proceedings relative to the evidence given before a Select Committee, which had been printed in a Dublin newspaper, it was resolved that Mr. Sheehan, who had been examined before the Committee, had been guilty of a high breach of privilege, and an order was made that he should be committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. He should not bring that case under the consideration of 1392 the House in the manner which its importance deserved, if he did not state that it was the impression of the Poor-law Committee that the breach of privilege committed by the publication in The True Sun newspaper, of parts of the evidence, and some of the documents presented before that Committee, had been made according to the directions, or under the control of, a Member of that House, who was also a Member of the Committee. Such was the impression of that Committee, it being known that the Member in question was proprietor of that newspaper. Now, he felt quite certain that if that were the case; the Member of the House so concerned in the publication of the evidence would not allow the House to call to its bar the printer of the newspaper, and suffer him to be committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms, while the act was done by his direction. That being the case, he felt it his duty to bring the question under the consideration of the House, as a question upon which they ought, after mature deliberation, to come to some decision as to what should be the proceeding of that House. It might be right (for he would not now enter into that question, because he would rather do so on a future occasion) that every Member of, the Committee should have the privilege of publishing, in any newspaper he chose, the evidence taken before the Committee; but if that was to be the case, it should be by resolution of that House. His opinion was to the contrary effect. As, however, this was a subject of a very important nature, he would in the first place wish to state, that if any hon. Member of the Committee on the Poor-law Act was concerned in the publication of the evidence given before that Committee in The True Sun, he would feel it to be his duty to declare that he, and not the printer of the paper, was the responsible person in this case.
§ Mr. Harveysaid, confining himself for the present to the mere question which had been put to him by the noble Lord, and reserving any observations which he might feel it incumbent upon him to make when the noble Lord should have submitted his resolutions to the House, he could have no hesitation whatever in stating, that no man would feel more ashamed than he should in seeking protection behind the backs of either printer or publisher. He did avow himself, as the law had already called on 1393 him to avow himself, by recording his name at Somerset House, as the proprietor of The True Sun newspaper, to be so; and in that capacity he held himself, there and elsewhere, responsible for its contents— when true to abide by them, when false to retract them; and if any person was injured by them, to express his regret, and, if need be, to apologise.
§ Lord John Russellsaid, the hon. Member had taken the course which he had expected he would take, and had disavowed his intention to hide himself under any printer or publisher's name. He thought that as the hon. Member was a Member of the Committee, and as the publication in question had not taken place through the interference of any editor of a newspaper, or of any printer, who had by some connivance or by indirect means obtained possession of the evidence taken before the Committee, but was 'published under the sanction of a Member of the Committee itself, he should not ask the House at the present moment to come to a decision on the question. He had made up his mind as to the course he ought to pursue on such an occasion, but that course he should propose to-morrow; and he should propose to defer the consideration of the question till to-morrow, in order that Members of that House should have an opportunity of reflecting in their own minds whether the course he proposed was consonant with the privileges of the House, and conducive to the interests of the public, or whether any other course ought to be adopted to produce those effects. The motion, then, which he should propose to-morrow, if the House would consent to postpone the consideration of the question till then, was—" That, according to the undoubted privileges of this House, and in order to afford due protection to the public interests, the evidence taken by any Select Committee of this House and the documents presented to such Committee, and which have not been reported to the House, ought not to be published by any Member of such Committee, or by any other person." He would not now enter into the argument for the support of that resolution—he would state it to-morrow. But if that resolution were entered into by the House, it would be seen that after such a declaration of its opinions it would be the duty of every Member of that House and of any Select Committee to conform to such a resolution. He moved, therefore, 1394 that the question be postponed until tomorrow.
§ Mr. Harveygathered from the noble Lord's statement, that he was solicitous that the discussion of this truly important subject should be deferred. He trusted that the noble Lord would postpone it till Thursday, because it was of infinite importance that every hon. Member should give the resolution proposed by the noble Lord his serious attention, and it might so happen, that the debate of to-night would run so much into to-morrow as to make it doubtful whether there would be a House to-morrow; and it was not at all improbable that some hon. Members might wish to move an amendment on the resolution, of which notice would be required, and which might demand consideration.
§ Lord John Russellhad no objection to the proposal of the hon. Member, and would move, that the consideration of the subject be postponed to Thursday next.
§ Debate postponed.