Mr. MarkPhilips wished to set himself 905 right respecting a statement he had made on a preceding day, respecting the conduct of the curate of Long Hitchindean in connection with the last election for South Warwickshire. That statement had been denied by an hon. Baronet (Sir E. Wilmot), and still more emphatically by the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr. A. Trevor,) but he, (Mr. M. Philips) had since made the necessary inquiries, and he found, by correspondence with the parties, that what he had asserted was correct. The under-sheriff having heard that the curate of Long Hitchindean had been active in ordering the preparation of bludgeons, as he apprehended, to be employed for the breach of the peace at the election for South Warwickshire, had waited upon the reverend gentleman, and inquired of him if such was the fact? The curate gave it a distinct denial. The under-sheriff afterwards called upon the parish clerk, and in his possession saw a number of bludgeons. Asking by whose order they had been prepared, he admitted the instrumentality of the curate. At this time the curate happened to be coming by, and being again questioned he admitted that he had some knowledge of the bludgeons, but added that he meant them to be used as staves to escort Mr. Shirley's voters to the poll. The under-sheriff took possession of them and carried them away, as the clergyman, not being a magistrate, could have no power to order the manufacture of staves. These facts were detailed in a letter from the under-sheriff, and he, (Mr. M. Philips) believed that they had been stated on the hustings, although not in his hearing, so great was the confusion. Whether the bludgeons came within the definition of a stave in Johnson's Dictionary he did not know, but that they had been prepared was indisputable, notwithstanding the denial by the two hon. Members. As he had said, his (Mr. M. Philips) only object was to set himself right, and to show that he had not been guilty of any misrepresentation.
§ Sir Eardley Wilmothoped the House would do him the justice to believe that he would not make any statement of the correctness of which he was not fully convinced, and he fully acquitted the hon. Member opposite of stating any thing which he did not believe to be well founded. In fact they both spoke on this matter from the information of others, and not from their own knowledge. The only question between them now was, whether those 906 staves, as they were called, could be considered bludgeons. He had, since the subject had been mentioned, been down to the Warwickshire assizes, and he was informed on authority which he had no reason to doubt, that an application had been made to some friendly society for the use of their wands, for the procession of Mr. Shirley's friends to the hustings, and they were refused. An order was then given to a carpenter to make some, and to cut down some young ash-trees for that purpose. He had seen some of them. They were seven feet long, and certainly, if they were intended to be used in the state in which he saw them, they could easily be converted into offensive weapons; but there were amongst them three or four wands not as thick as his thumb, and if these were intended as patterns of the size to which the others were to be reduced, they were not calculated to do any harm.
§ Subject dropped.