HC Deb 16 June 1806 vol 7 cc673-5
Mr. Whitbread

did not conceive that the motion which he should now make could meet with any opposition, and therefore he should content himself with moving, that a committee should be appointed to inspect the Journals of the Lords, with relation to their proceedings on the trial of lord Melville, and to report to the house what they should there find.

Sir H. Mildmay

wished the hon. gent. to give some explanation to the house respecting the object of his present motion.

Mr. Whitbread

replied, that some kind of information might probably be obtained for the lords' journals by which the house might be regulated in their future proceedings on this subject.

Mr. Dent

did not think the answer to his hon. friend satisfactory. It was surely not too much to ask, what that future course to be pursued by the house was to be?

Mr. Whitbread

was anxious to make the hon. gent. as wise on this head as it was possible for him. He did not know what was on the Journals of the Lords, and therefore could not satisfy him in that respect. If humour was to be depended upon, certain questions had been submitted to the judges by their lordships, and these, with the answer of the judges, he thought desirable to have produced to that house. What course it might be expedient to follow, would depend on the report of the committee.

Mr. R. Dundas

wished to know, whether the whole of the proceedings of the lords were to be laid before the house.?

Mr. Whitbread

answered, that the committee were only to report what they should find in the Journals to the house.

Mr. Fuller

did not know what the Journals of the Lords contained, but certainly understood it to have been stated by a noble lord opposite (lord H. Petty) on a former occasion, that if lord Melville should be acquitted, his expences should be paid by the public. This was the more just, as he had been compelled to go from one court into another, where the expence incurred was infinitely greater.

Lord H. Petty

said, that when the subject alluded to by the hon. member was mentioned during the discussions before the trial, he had said, that whatever might be proper to be done in that respect, must be determined after the trial, and not before; but he had never given any promise, such as the hon. member conceived.

Mr. Whitbread

said, that lord Melville had no blame to impute to the managers on that account; he had been taken into the court in which he was tried, by his own particular friends, after the house had possi- tively, determined, that he should be tried in the court below.

Mr. R. Dundas

recollected perfectly, that the observation of the noble lord had been made on the occasion when the comparative expence of a trial in the house of lords and in Westminster hall was under discussion, and undoubtedly the removal of the trial from the bar of the house of lords to Westminster hall had greatly increased the expence, and was not imputable to the other house.—The committee was then appointed.