§ THE EARL OF DERBYMy Lords, seeing the noble Earl the President of the Council in his place, I wish to call his attention to a matter of some importance with respect to the Select Committee over which he has lately presided. In the proceedings of that Committee your Lordships will have observed that two divisions taken towards the latter end of the Report were taken on two distinct paragraphs of that Report. On the first of the paragraphs in the draft Report a noble Lord (Lord Taunton) moved an Amendment, which was carried by a narrow majority. Upon the second paragraph the same noble Lord moved another Amendment, which was carried by the same small majority. But in the Report as it appears it would seem that the whole of the two Amendments were consolidated into one, and that they were carried against the first paragraph of the draft Report. If that had been the case it would have made the second paragraph of the Report absurd, because it was in pari materia, and the only difference was as to the manner in which we should express our opinion substantially with regard to the course taken by the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack. Our opinion was not very different with regard to the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack; but as the Report stands it would appear that the minority appeared to object, which they certainly did not, to the declaration embodied in Lord Taunton's Amendment to the second paragraph, acquitting the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack altogether of being actuated by any unworthy motives in the course he had pursued. We thought the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack had committed an error in judgment, and had taken a wrong view of his duty; but both the minority and the majority were perfectly prepared to acquit him of improper or unworthy motives.
§ EARL GRANVILLEI am much obliged to the noble Earl for having mentioned this subject to the House. It struck me this morning, in reading the Report, 1526 that the second paragraph, as printed, in I casting an imputation upon the noble and learned Lord's conduct, was a mistake. That mistake has been clearly described by the noble Earl. I have been in communication with the Clerk of the Committee who committed the mistake, and who expresses his regret for the error. I am bound to state that the gentleman who acted as clerk discharges his duties with remarkable intelligence; but it was quite natural, from the manner in which the Amendments were put, that this mistake should have occurred. Under the circumstances, I think the best course will be to have the Report corrected and delivered in the amended form on Monday.