§ Mr. Wallacereferring to his notice of motion upon the paper for the evening, for "copies or extracts of all the information that had been furnished by the authorities of the Post-office to the right hon. Member for Harwich, &c, with the particulars of such verbal communications (if any) respecting an anticipated or probable deficiency in the Post-office revenue, as alluded to by the right hon. Member for Harwich, in the debate on the financial state of the country, on Thursday, the 13th inst," said, that he found that his notice was not strictly regular, as it had referred to what had taken place in a former debate, and as it was always his wish to avoid any irregularity where the forms of the House were concerned, he begged to withdraw his motion for the present.
§ Mr. Herriessaid, that in consequence of the step now taken by the hon. Gentleman in withdrawing the notice which he had given, on the ground of irregularity, he should take it as a great favour if the House would allow him to say a very few words. Every Gentleman who had read the notice which appeared on the paper for that day would form his own judgment on the propriety of that notice; upon so much or" it as related to himself he should offer no observations, but there were others concerned in the notice which appeared on the votes of the House of Commons, in behalf of whom he begged permission of the House to say a very few words. He meant, when he used these terms, to refer to the officers of the Post-office, who were designated in the notice of the hon. Gentleman as the "authorities of the Post-office," and with respect to whom it was proposed, that the names of such persons should be laid on the Table of the House for furnishing information to him. Now, as all those gentlemen had characters to uphold, it would be of great importance—
§ Mr. Wallace.—Sir, I rise to order, the right hon. Gentleman is guilty of an irregularity in persisting to address the House,
§ Mr. HerriesI am speaking upon the question of order. It is within the rules and orders of the House that any Gentleman may ask leave of the House to address it, and it is within the power of the House, if it be their pleasure, to hear him. If it be not the pleasure of the House to hear me, I shall not persist in the observations which I was about to make, but if it be their pleasure, I shall proceed. The right hon. Gentleman then went on to say, that it was on the behalf of those gentlemen to whom he had referred, and on whom a reflection had been cast by implication, that he asked permission of the House to say a few words, and they should be very few. What he had to say was simply this—that with any of those persons, from Lord Lichfield and Colonel Maberly, from the very highest to the very lowest, he had held no communication, direct or indirect whatsoever. He declared, on his honour as a gentleman, that he had not received from any one of those persons any sort of communication or intimation of what was going on within the Post-office. This was the statement which he had to make, and the 318 object of his statement was to discharge what he believed to be upright, honourable, and faithful public servants from any possible stigma that might attach to them from the hon. Member's motion, and that they might not be exposed to any suspicion of want of probity in the discharge of their public duty, or of fidelity to their superiors—a suspicion which must be injurious not to them only, but to the public service, as it could not but sow distrust between them and their superiors in office.
§ Mr. Wallacesaid, he was exceedingly gratified by the statement of the right hon. Gentleman opposite. The right hon. Member was reported to have said the other evening, and he believed did say—
§ The Speakerrose to order, and said, he thought it his duty to interfere on this occasion, because, he was sure that if the hon. Gentleman went on, he would transgress one of the rules of the House. He should say, that when he had received notice of the hon. Gentleman's motion, he had intimated to him that it was irregular, and that he should withdraw it. He felt that if he now persevered in the observations he was making he would be acting out of order.
§ Mr. Wallacewould then only say, that having heard the statement of the right hon. Member, he begged to assure him and the House that he gave most entire credit to his statement, and that, not wishing to convey any impression whatever that would be disagreeable to him or the officers of the Post-office, he would withdraw his motion altogether.
§ Notice withdrawn.