§ Mr. Whitbreadsaid, he rose for the purpose of drawing the attention of the house to an act which in his opinion more deeply affected their privileges than any thing that had ever occurred since he had the honour of a seal in it. The act he alluded to, was the Letter written by his royal highness the Duke of York, addressed to that house, and conveyed to it through the medium of the Speaker. The Speaker had certainly done his duty, as he always did with the greatest propriety and correctness on every occasion, by informing the house of the method usually pursued in cases of letters addressed to the house being communicated through him, and the result was that the paper was ordered to lie on the table. If he (Mr. W.) did not then object to it, a few minutes reflection enabled him to ascertain to his own satisfaction, that the true mode of proceeding would have been to move that the debate be adjourned. It appeared to him that this Letter struck at the privileges of the house, by stating, that it had examined evidence which it ought not to have done. His royal highness was as competent to have written to the house in the first instance, that it ought not to institute and carry on any inquiry on such evidence as would be produced before it. If it was the intention of any one of those who had advised his royal highness to write this Letter, hereafter to make any motion on the subject, the house would then be enabled to form a judgment what line of conduct ought to be adopted 1054 respecting it. Till he received some answer on that head, he should content himself with repeating, that he deemed the Letter to be a gross violation of the privileges of this house.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, he did not know how, according to the rules of the house, he could take notice of what the hon. gent. had said, as he sat down without making any motion. He himself thought as highly as any one of the privileges of that house; and it did not appear to him, that any thing in the Letter in question could be said to be an attack on, or an infringement of them. If the hon. gent. had made any motion, he should have been able to have drawn a conclusion on what he meant. All he could now collect was, that there was something contained in the Letter, which seemed to protest against the justice of the proceedings of the house upon this head, on the ground that the evidence examined before it was not under those particular sanctions which the law required in other cases. So far from this being the fact, all he understood by the letter was no more than this, that h. r. h. supposing himself to be attacked in such a manner as to make it necessary to go into an inquiry, in order that the whole should be elicited in the most open mode, and finding that the evidence was closed, intended to lay before the house an allegation of his innocence; and if the house should, after that allegation, be inclined to doubt his innocence, he states, that he hoped the house would not enter upon any proceeding which might have the effect of condemning him before he could have a trial, in which he would have the advantage of evidence under all the sanction and solemnity of the law. He was certain that h. r. h. had not the smallest intention to attack the privileges of the house; and how the Letter could be conceived an attack on them, he could not conceive. That it was not wholly unprecedented, he contended was apparent from what the Speaker had stated on the preceding night. If any farther information could be obtained by means of a Committee searching for precedents, he should be extremely glad of it. The hon. gent. wanted to know whether he or any one of his right hon. friends, intended to move any thing on the subject. For his own part, he had no such intention, nor had he heard or understood that any one else had. The Letter was now become a document on the table, and like any other paper or 1055 petition which was ordered to lie there, might be referred to by every member of the house, and every individual who might refer to it, might make what remarks on it he pleased, or adopt any proceeding relative to it which he thought necessary.
§ Lord H. Pettythought the questions of such extraordinary importance as to require the particular attention of the house, being, in his opinion, a direct attack on its privileges. He had not understood his hon. friend to object to the Letter, in as far as it contained an allegation of innocence, but in going beyond that allegation. It was subject to the obvious meaning or opinion, that no declaration could be come to by that house on the evidence laid before it, but such as would carry it out of the province of the house; and when the Word "condemned" was considered, it was to be inferred that the house ought not to determine on the evidence laid before it, which was the only evidence that it could receive. He therefore thought, with his hon. friend, that the house had, by the vote of last night, permitted a Letter to be put on the table which was an attack on their privileges.