HC Deb 21 April 1820 vol 1 cc2-9

Many of the members of the new parliament having assembled in the House of Commons at half past two, the yeoman usher of the Black Rod appeared at the bar of the House, and having proceeded to the table, informed the members that they were required by the Lords Commissioners to attend the House of Peers to hear the Commission read. After they had returned,

Sir William Scott

rose for the purpose of submitting a motion to supply the vacancy in the honourable office of Speaker. He had never claimed the attention of the House with more unmixed satisfaction, from a conviction that the opinion he entertained upon this subject was universal among the honourable gentlemen whom he was addressing. Although the distinguished individual who had presided over the deliberations of the House during the two last parliaments had perhaps the most indisputable title again to fill the same office, he could not but be aware that he was speaking in the presence of many who, on any other occasion, both from public and private considerations, would be equally deserving of the utmost confidence of the House. It could not be denied that, composed as that House was of gentlemen selected from the various component parts of society in the United Kingdom, many were to be found in it whose talents, acquirements, and general merits would afford a fair prospect of a successful discharge of the arduous duties of Speaker. Here, however, it was fortunately not necessary to hazard any speculation, however promising; past services, and tried and demonstrable abilities—abilities not confined to the mere discharge of what might be termed the dry duties of the office—had commanded not merely the approbation, but the admiration, of every member who had witnessed their employment. Thus all experiment was rendered needless, and perhaps he should justly merit censure if he were to attempt any description of the duties of the individual who was appointed to preside over the discussions of the House: he should better discharge this part of the task he had undertaken, by referring to the mode in which his right hon. friend had fulfilled those duties, [Hear, hear!]. With regard to the qualifications of a Speaker also, it might be said, in a word, that all and more had been displayed by the individual about to be offered to the choice of the House; but, as many gentlemen might be now present who had not had an opportunity of personally observing their exercise, he would make a very few remarks upon them, The first qualification undoubtedly was, a warm affection for the happy constitution of this country, including an inflexible regard for the rights and privileges of the House, and for the just liberties of. the people, of which liberties those rights and privileges were to be numbered among the principal securities. A great portion of? health and strength was necessary to undergo the severe labour, he had almost said the oppressive fatigue of such a station: the Journals of the House contained a voluminous body of historical reading, and to a familiarity with them must be added an official acquaintance, not merely with forms, but with the principles on which those forms originated, and upon which they were most wisely established. A facility of access, and a frankness of communication in all the intercourse of private business, were highly desirable; and an attention ever awake to the exigencies of the moment in the performance of more public functions was indispensable. All who were members of the last parliament knew how eminently these requisites were united in his right hon. friend; and to them might be added one more amiable qualification equally conspicuous—an unaffected suavity of disposition and manners; a suavity that, without courting popular regard, universally attracted it. A liberal, a splendid hospitality, congenial with the habits of the country, and well becoming the dignity of the presiding member of a great deliberative assembly, had ever been experienced at his table. If the present had been an occasion on which he ought to indulge his own feelings, he could readily amplify upon the qualities necessary for a Speaker, because he had before him a perfect example of them; but it behoved him to forbear the gratification of his own personal wishes, that he might no longer retard the declaration of that united sentiment which the House was impatient to display. He therefore would move, without further preface, "That the Right Honourable Charles Manners Sutton do take the chair of this House as Speaker."

Mr. Holme Sumner

seconded the motion. He said, he had not sat so long in parliament without having obtained some knowledge of the arduous duties of the Speaker: the great increase of public business had of late added much to the severity of the burthen. In thus supporting the proposition of the right hon. mover he was aware that he was placing himself in a situation to which he had no other claim than the length of time during which he had filled a seat in parliament: his service as a representative had taught him how much of the regularity and dignity of their proceedings were connected with the office of Speaker. If he had had to recommend a gentleman who was unknown, it would have been proper to have entered at some length into the foundation of his claim; but, as had been already remarked, the individual now proposed had proved himself, in every way, worthy of the confidence and approbation of the House. As be had never known Mr. Manners Sutton but in his public capacity, he could not propose him with the partiality of private friend- ship; but the respect and regard he had excited in his public capacity were amply sufficient to establish his competence. When it was recollected that the education of that right hon. gentleman had been directed to the laws of his country, and to the principles of its inestimable constitution, that alone formed a high claim to the suffrages of the House; but after it had been seen in how short a time after he had been first elevated to the situation of Speaker, three years ago, he had appeared to have deeply studied the laws and rules, and investigated the principles by which the proceedings of the House were regulated—after the readiness he had displayed in the discharge of every point of duty, it would have been supposed, by those unacquainted with his previous history, that he had made the subject the diligent occupation of his life. To this knowledge was to be added a becoming deference for the opinion of the House, which, while it evinced a confidence in his own information, by the manner in which the rule was prescribed, did not diminish from the dignity of the station he was appointed to occupy. He might advert, also, to the peculiar facility with which all members obtained access to him, and to the urbanity of his communications on all subjects of parliamentary difficulty; but it was needless, as most of those who heard him had had frequent opportunities of experiencing it. After the manner in which the motion had been made by a right hon. gentleman so remarkable for his eloquence, and after the mode in which the distinguished individual proposed had been designated by him were he to make any attempt of the same kind, he should only succeed in making conspicuous his own incompetence to the undertaking: he would therefore merely thank the House for the kindness with which it had already heard him, adding, in conclusion, that, since he had been honoured with a seat in parliament, he had never voted with greater satisfaction than he should do on the present occasion, from a conviction that the individual in question combined in his own person, claims of every kind; and was not only most competent for his high office, but most acceptable to the House.

Mr. Manners Sutton

rose amid the cheers of the House. He said, he hoped that neither the right hon. gentleman who had moved his nomination in a manner so flattering, nor the hon. gentleman who had so handsomely seconded it, nor the House which had received the proposition with such marks of approbation, would measure the strength of his feelings of gratitude on this occasion by the feeble manner in which he should express them. He fully concurred in all that had been said of the high duties and weighty labours of the office of Speaker not only as it was immediately connected with the House itself, but as it respected the public at large. At all times the most embarrassing subject was that where the individual addressing the House was personally concerned: no man who spoke honestly was too ready to undervalue himself; and when the difficulties that surrounded the situation of Speaker, were considered—when it was recollected how much, as the honourable member for Surrey had observed, the public business had increased, being of late years almost doubled—and when were added to that the new embarrassments arising out of the times in which we lived, that man must be a bold one who dared to presume that he was adequate to such an office. His right hon. friend, whose kindness in public and private he had experienced on many occasions, but never more than on the present, had been pleased to refer with approbation to his previous conduct in the chair: he could only say, that if he had had the good fortune to give satisfaction, he had ahead)' obtained his first and highest remuneration. As to any services, the performance of which was within his reach, he would honestly state, that he attributed their success, not to any exertions he was capable of making, but to that for which he was at all periods most thankful—the constant and cordial co-operation of the House. Its indulgent assistance had been always ready, and it had ever shown a forbearing disinclination to notice accidental mistakes, or to mark involuntary lapses, and a friendly determination to be satisfied with such exertions as its Speaker was competent to make. The House would pardon him, if, in his anxiety to relieve them from the painful task of listening longer to a subject, embarrassing, inasmuch as it was personal, he contented himself with adding, that he had no reliance whatever on any pretensions of his own: he would not deny that to secure the approbation of the House had been the highest object of his ambition; and if it were again its pleasure to place him in the dignified station of Speaker, the most he could say, and the most he could do, was to assure it, that his anxious and constant exertions should be employed in its service [Cheers].

The right hon. gentleman was then conducted to the chair, between the mover and seconder. Having taken his seat, he again rose and observed, that it was quite impossible for him to convey to the House the deep sense he entertained of the honour just conferred upon him. After what had already fallen from him, it would ill become him to attempt to mislead the House by any assurance that he could discharge the duties of the office in which he was placed, with the abilities they required: he must now, as heretofore, implore the constant assistance and kind indulgence of the House. He might, however, without too much presumption, ask credit for this assurance—that he would discharge his duties honestly, with the utmost zeal, and with the strictest impartiality [Continued cheers].

Lord Castlereagh

said, that, in the situation in which the House now found itself, the only question that remained was that of adjournment; but he hoped he might be permitted, in the name of the House, as well as for himself, to offer his congratulation on the choice that had just been made. From the manner in which the proposition of his right hon. friend had been received, it was obvious that the House was anxious to bestow on the individual now appointed to preside over its discussions, the highest mark of its approbation and confidence; and there could be no such mark in this free country more distinguished, than that of being rendered the first commoner of the empire. It was undoubtedly a matter of proud satisfaction, that at the period when the Speaker was placed in the chair, all opinions were united in his favour. He was sure that the House would feel what had been already observed, that, without touching upon the peculiar importance of the times in which we lived (and certainly that man must take a very superficial view of the condition of affairs who should consider them but ordinary times), the office of Speaker included many important duties connected with the jarring interests of this mighty empire, while parliament was. devoting its attention to promote its welfare and. prosperity. It was no small satisfaction to have now placed in the chair an individual by general consent so capable of fulfilling the arduous task imposed upon him—so competent to guide the House in its deliberations—to preside over those discussions in which the best interests of the state were engaged with manly fortitude, and to enforce with firmness and wisdom those rules and forms so essential to the privileges of parliament, and to the maintenance of the real liberties of the subject. Of the qualifications of the Speaker the last parliament had enjoyed the benefit, and he was most happy that they were to be continued to the present [Hear]. He would move, that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. Brougham,

in the absence of those more competent and more worthy generally to express the feelings of those who sat on his side of the House, trusted that it would not be thought presumptuous if he added his testimony to that of the hon. gentleman who had preceded him. He took the liberty, therefore, to congratulate, first the Speaker, but most of all the House itself, and not less the House than the whole Commons of England, upon the free choice which had now fallen, for the third time, upon the same individual. He was sure that he expressed only the general sentiment in the wish that the Speaker now elected might continue with the enjoyment of health and long life to fill a station equally necessary for the support of the privileges of the House, and for the preservation of the liberties of, the people at large; and the duties of which, he grieved to say, by the common consent of all, were not likely to be lightened. It was a matter of most sincere congratulation to the House and to the country, that it had again the inestimable benefit of having the chair filled by one who had shown himself, in all the more important, as well as in the less material parts of the functions of his situation, eminently gifted for their discharge; who had upon every occasion proved that he was indeed the depository of the truest dignity of the House, by wearing the honours conferred upon him both with firmness and meekness. It formed one of his highest and most essential titles to the office, that on all necessary occasions he had evinced the courage as well as the capacity to protect the sacred privileges of the House from infraction, under whatever pretext, whether assaulted by lawless violence, or put to hazard by the more subtile attempts of gradual encroachment.

The House then adjourned.