GENERAL DARLING. (Hansard, 1 September 1835)

§ Sir Henry Hardinge
hoped, that this Report would be printed and circulated with the votes, as General Darling's conduct had been exposed to the most severe imputations, and it was now declared by a Committee of the House to be entirely free from blame. It must be highly satisfactory to the friends of that gallant Officer to know that he had done nothing inconsistent with his character as a soldier and a man of honour, during his administration in New South Wales. It was only an act of justice towards General Darling, that the imputations cast upon him in that House should, if possible, be obliterated; and the best mode of obliterating those imputations, as it appeared to him, was to print this Report along with the votes. The right hon. and gallant Officer concluded by making a Motion to that effect.

§ The Speaker
said, that the course proposed by the right hon. and gallant Officer was a deviation from the general practice of the House. He would give orders that this Report should be printed as speedily as possible; when printed it would be easy to circulate it in the usual manner. He saw no reason for departing from their ordinary course, and for putting the Report on the votes of the House.

§ Sir Henry Hardinge
did not wish the Report to to be inserted in the votes; he only wished it to be printed separately and circulated with the votes.

§ The Speaker
The ordinary course would secure that point.

§ Sir Henry Hardinge
Then my object will be attained.

§ Mr. Aglionby
said, that there was an allegation in the Report, that no evidence had been tendered in support of the other charges preferred in the petition against General Darling. The inference from that was, that besides the charge relating to General Darling's treatment of the two soldiers, all the other charges against him 1243 had fallen through. Now, as a Member of the Committee, he would not say, that he had not the slightest desire to retract from a single word in the Report respecting the treatment of Sudds and Thomson by General Darling, but having said that, he must also say, that he had no grounds for expressing a similar acquittal of that gallant Officer upon the other charges preferred against him. The latter part of the Report had been drawn up after he left the Committee-room, and when he thought the whole business was concluded, otherwise he should have stayed to the end. Now, what he wished to ask the hon. and learned Chairman of that Committee was, whether the concluding Resolution of the Report was drawn up so as to say, that General Darling was acquitted on the other charges preferred against him, or that, owing to the late period of the Session, no evidence had been tendered on those charges? As the Report was read by the Clerk, it appeared to him, that the complete acquittal of General Darling from all blame in the cases of Sudds and Thomson over-rode the other charges contained in the petition.

§ Mr. Tooke
said, that it was the duty of the Committee, after coming to a Resolution on the case of Sudds and Thomson, to come to a Resolution on all the other charges contained in the petition. He had, therefore, called upon the hon. and learned Member for Tralee (Mr. M. O'Connell), who seemed to conduct the prosecution, to state whether he had any evidence to tender upon the other allegations, and no such evidence being tendered, a Resolution was handed up to him, that no evidence was offered upon them. The Committee had thus disposed of all the matters referred to their consideration.