HC Deb 06 July 1819 vol 40 c1518
Mr. A. Lambe

was brought to the bar, where he received the following reprimand from the Speaker, and was discharged out of custody, paying his fees: Alexander Lambe, this House yesterday came to a resolution, That you, since your first examination before a committee of the whole House, to whom it was referred to consider of the Extracts of Indictments against sir. M. M. Lopez and others, for bribery at the late election of burgesses to serve for the borough of Grampound, having destroyed a material document relative thereto, have been guilty of wilful suppression of evidence, and a high contempt of the authority of this House.ߞThis is an offence of the most serious and grave nature, both as affecting the dignity of this House and the ends of justice; and had this offence been committed by you with the deliberate intention of impeding the examination now in progress, it would have been the bounden duty of this House to have punished it with the utmost severity. But in proportion as this act, if committed with such a view and such intentions, would have been disgraceful to yourself, and in contempt of every feeling of principle and honesty, in the same proportion this House is most anxious to attribute your conduct to other motives which may have actuated you, and which may explain and extenuate; and believing that the destruction of this instrument has been committed not with any intention to interfere with its proceedings, or to defeat the ends of justice, but that it originated solely from strong impressions upon your mind of the professional confidence reposed in you by your client; with this impression, and this alone, the House is prepared to extend to you its lenity, and to order that you be now reprimanded, and discharged.ߞIn obedience, then, to the commands of the House, I now reprimand you, and acquaint you, that you are discharged, upon payment of your fees.