CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE—MR. BROGDEN. (Hansard, 24 November 1826)

§ Mr. Brogden
addressed the House. He said, that he had now had the honour of filling the important and honourable situation of Chairman of the Committees of the House for nearly two whole parliaments; and he was not conscious of having done any act, during that period, which was either dishonourable in itself or derogatory from the situation which he filled in that House and in society at large. Within the few last months, however, he had been assailed by public and private calumnies, the most unjustifiable and unfounded. He had rebutted those calumnies as far as was in his power; but they were still circulated to his disadvantage, in consequence of the prejudices which had been excited against him. He was happy, however, in having it in his power to say, that from those who knew him best, he had received, not blame, but thanks; he had met, not with accusation, but applause; whilst, on the other hand, he was sorry to say, that among the public at large his character had been torn from him by anonymous publications of the most scandalous and virulent description. He would venture to affirm, that there was no gentleman on either side of the House, let his politics be what they might, who had investigated the merits of his case, and possessed sufficient knowledge of it to decide on the accusations which had been preferred against him. In such a condition, though he felt himself perfectly guiltless, he could not think of presenting himself as a candidate for the office which he had filled in the two last parliaments, until he had removed the 138 calumnies which had been propagated against him [loud cheers]. He was sure that the House would do him justice when an inquiry into the charges against him should be instituted, and that it would, in the mean time, appreciate the motives which induced him to act as he then acted. All that he would say further was, that he was guiltless of all fraud, and that he wished the transaction alluded to by the hon. alderman who had brought it before the House to be fully investigated. At present, he bowed before the storm which had been excited against him; but he was convinced that fair weather would soon return, and that his character would shine with undiminished brightness in spite of the clouds which now obscured it. He would not trespass further on the attention of the House. On former occasions he had often received its indulgence: all that he now asked for was its justice. In conclusion he challenged the worthy alderman, who had been the first to assail his character, to give him a speedy opportunity of vindicating it from the charges which he had brought against it.

Mr. Secretary Canning
said, he was sure that only one impression could have been generated in the House by the address which the hon. gentleman had delivered— an address which was as creditable to that hon. gentleman's sense of what was due to himself, as it was consonant to the honour of the House, and to the feelings of those whose duty it was to suggest a fit person to fill the chair of the committees. For his own part, he felt that the House, although it might avail itself of the hon. member's determination to withdraw himself at present from the chair, which he had filled with so much credit to himself and advantage to the public business— and he could assure it, that he did not intend to propose the hon. gentleman for its chairman, after what he had just said,— he felt, he repeated, that the House, if the hon. gentleman came out of the inquiry which he had challenged, free from moral taint, would be sorry to make any arrangement which would preclude him from again filling that situation. At the same time, he must observe, that if it had been possible—if it had been either respectful to the House, or kind to the individual— to press him against his own disclaimer, he should have been reluctant to place the hon. member at present in the chair, because he felt that a thousand opportunities 139 during the ordinary business of parliament might arise, in which the vague rumours, which had necessarily reached the ears of every member in the House, might prove impediments to the progress of business, and matter of unpleasantness to the hon. member himself. The course which the hon. member had taken was, in his opinion, manly, wise, and honourable. He was confident that the hon. alderman who had menaced that hon. member—and he did not use the word "menaced" in an offensive sense—perhaps he ought rather to have said, who had given that hon. member notice of his intention to oppose his re-election to the office of chairman of the committees of the House, would feel himself bound to give him as early as possible the opportunity which he sought of exculpating his character. Until that exculpation was complete, he should not deem it respectful to the House to propose to place the hon. member in that situation, which he could not fill to the public advantage, unless he took it free from all moral taint. When the proper opportunity arrived, he should propose as chairman, pro tempore, another hon. gentleman, who had long been a member of the House, who was conversant with its forms and modes of transacting business, and whom he could venture to recommend to their notice as a man of unblemished honour. He would also say this of that gentleman, that though the chairmanship of their committees would be to him, as it must be to every member, an object of honourable ambition, he would be more happy in restoring it to its ancient possessor, free from all reproach, than he would be in holding it himself, whilst that gentleman was labouring, unjustly, under the obloquy of the public.

Mr. Alderman Waithman
said, he felt himself in as painful a situation—indeed he might say, in a more painful situation —than he had ever before felt in addressing a public assembly. He wished it to be distinctly understood by the House, that he did not come forward as the accuser of the hon. gentleman. With regard to the transactions which he had brought before it, and which the hon. member had acknowledged to be fraudulent, the hon. member said that he knew nothing. He gave the hon. member credit for that assertion; and he now informed the House, that it was not upon that ground alone that he opposed the re-elec- 140 tion of the hon. member to the situation of chairman of the committees of the House. He had seen so much of the gambling speculations which had recently disgraced and exhausted the country—he knew so much of the manner in which they were concocted and subsequently managed—that he considered it derogatory from the honour of the House to have any man connected with so many of them, as the hon. member was, placed in the respectable situation of chairman of their committees. "Indeed," continued the hon. alderman, "had it been possible for you, Mr. Speaker, to have been connected as the hon. member is with numbers of these joint-stock companies, I should have felt it to be my duty, upon public grounds, to have made the same objection to your re-election to the office which you now so honourably fill, as I ventured to say that I should make to the re-election of the hon. member to the post which he filled in the last parliament." He declared that he should not have said a word bearing upon the hon. member, had not the lion, member been likely to be again called to the situation which he had twice before had the honour of filling; and though he might have felt it his duty to have brought the whole of the joint-stock companies under the notice of parliament, he should not have placed the hon. member's connexion with them under its consideration, unless it had arisen naturally out of the investigation. He knew that many hon. members of that House had lent their names to those speculations; and that by so doing they had inflicted considerable mischief on unsuspecting individuals, though they had had no participation in the fraudulent gains. If such an inquiry as he proposed should take place, he trusted that the House (even though some hon. members of it should be implicated by it, and should be proved to have extracted money out of the pockets of the people, by raising the price of shares by unfair and dishonourable artifices) would do its duty to the country, and would institute a rigid investigation into every circumstance connected with the subject. It might perhaps be asked, why he had put himself so prominently forward on this occasion. He could give many reasons; but one should suffice. It was his fortune to be placed in a high and dignified situation in the year 1824, when this mania was at its height. He was at that time 141 lord mayor of London, and in consequence, had numberless applications from the various parties in getting up the bubbles, to give his sanction to them. He believed that by putting his name to those applications he might have put thousands of pounds in his pocket. He saw, however, through the views of the parties who applied to him: he saw the mischief which their schemes were certain to produce; and he determined to enter his protest against them. It was, perhaps, that very determination which induced him to watch the progress of those bubbles more narrowly than he otherwise should have done; and the knowledge which he acquired by so watching them, convinced him of the necessity of entering into an investigation of their nature, in case the hon. member, or any other gentleman, connected with equal numbers of them, should aspire to the chairmanship of the committees of that House, in order to enable the House to decide whether they were or were not qualified to perform its functions. He thought it right to observe here, once for all, that he had no sort of personal ill will to the hon. member. He had known him many years: he had had some commercial dealings with him; and from the time when his acquaintance commenced with the hon. member down to the present moment, he had never had any ground to complain of him as a man of honour. He felt it his duty, however, on public grounds, to bring the subject before the House. He had observed these gambling speculations from their commencement to their close: he had witnessed the ruin which they had diffused throughout the country: he had seen men of large property stripped of their all, and their names in the Gazette, owing to their dabbling in them; and he, therefore, thought, that a full examination ought to be instituted into them, not an examination confined to the hon. member, and letting others go free, but one which should embrace all who had become directors of these various companies. If the hon. member should be able to exonerate himself from the charges which had been publicly brought against him, he should be as well pleased as any of the hon. member's friends, and should not offer any opposition to his re-election to that chair, which the hon. member had filled with so much satisfaction.