§ Mr. Shawbegged, the indulgence of the House while he referred to a matter that was personal to a gentleman of high respectability, holding an important judicial office in Ireland: he meant Mr. Blacker. The hon. and learned Member for Dublin, when speak- 460 ing on the bill for registration of voters, had said, in order to show that Mr. Blacker was one likely to take a stringent and unpopular view of the franchise, that Mr. Blacker had worn an Orange badge when on the circuit as a barrister. At the moment when the charge was made, he and those Gentlemen around him who knew Mr. Blacker, felt convinced that it was unfounded; but he would now read a short passage from a letter which he had received on the subject from Mr. Blacker himself. The passage was as follows:—
I gave up in 1826 going the circuit, and never, either before or since, have belonged to any political society of any description, or worn any badge, whether Orange or not, either on the circuit or elsewhere. The charge, therefore, is not only unfounded in fact, but is contrary to all my habits.
§ Mr. Sergeant Jacksonstated, that he had received a letter from Mr. Blacker to the same effect.
§ Sir R. Batesonsaid, he had known Mr. Blacker for many years, and he felt authorized by that long acquaintance to state that the insinuation of the hon. and learned Member for Dublin was perfectly unfounded.