HC Deb 29 May 1845 vol 80 c1011
Lord Ashley

took that opportunity of stating that he wished to trespass on the House for a few moments only, on a matter personal to himself. He had understood that his absence from last night's debate had been very severely commented upon. He had last night taken the chair at a meeting of Sunday School Teachers in a remote district of Lambeth, for which he had been engaged for several months, and where he had been detained for several hours; and he did not think that, at that late period of the evening, it was necessary to attend that House to take part in a division upon a Motion which, whether it were successful or not, could lead to no practical result.