§ Sir Henry Parnellbegged to call the attention of the House to a paragraph in The Morning Chronicle of yesterday, which said 'we understand that the general impression in the Committee sitting to investigate into the causes of the disturbances in the Queen's County is, that they have originated in the most abominable exactions of the gentry, which has led to a state of suffering on the part of the poor which would hardly be believed.' The Committee, considering this statement to be altogether unfounded, and wishing to prevent the impressions which such an imputation must of necessity make if uncontradicted, had come to a resolution, by which they declared that the statement in The Morning Chronicle of yesterday was a gross misrepresentation of facts relating to the conduct of the gentlemen of the Queen's County, and they had requested that he, as Chairman of the Committee, would communicate their resolution to the House, contradicting in the most decided manner the allegation contained in that paper. He could for himself undertake to say, that the evidence before the Committee did not at all bear out the statement which had appeared, and, having done his duty by communicating the resolution to the House, as he had been called upon to do by the Committee, he did not feel it necessary to say any thing more, or to take any steps on the subject.
Sir Robert Inglissaid, it was not usual to notice reports of what passed within those walls, or in Committees, unless the House was prepared to give its own authority to that reference, by calling the party to the bar of the House. Whether it was right or wrong to notice those irregularities he did not take upon him to say, but he felt that the notice which had been taken of this subject, in so formal a way, by the right hon. Baronet, and the Committee of which he was Chairman, was either too much or too little. It was too much unless the House was prepared to confirm it, and it was too little, as it ap- 953 peared to him, in reference to the offence which had been committed. He would, therefore, urge upon the right hon. Baronet the propriety of reconsidering the matter, and of moving that the printer of the paper in which the obnoxious paragraph appeared should be called to the bar of the House. He thought the House would not consult its own dignity if it suffered such a publication to pass without inquiry.
§ Sir Henry Parnellsaid, that the matter to which he referred was one in which the House was not at all concerned. It was a charge against the gentlemen of the Queen's County, which the Committee, as he had said, thinking unfounded, and wishing that no improper impression should be produced, had directed him, as the Chairman, which, he conceived, was the most proper way of proceeding, that he should communicate their opinion to the House with respect to the paragraph. He, therefore, did not feel called upon to adopt the course recommended to him by the hon. Baronet.
§ Mr. Briscoehoped that this conversation would not be prolonged. He was waiting to present a petition, and he appealed to the Speaker, whether it was not hard that the time of the House should be consumed in irregular discussions.
§ The Speakeras he was appealed to, must say, that there was nothing irregular in the communication made by the right hon. Baronet. Questions of Privilege took precedence of all other business.