HC Deb 27 January 1840 vol 51 cc633-7
The Speaker

informed the House that the Sergeant-at-Arms had a communication to make to the House.

The Sergeant-at-Arms accordingly came to the bar, and slated, that, pursuant to the order of the House, he had this day made a return to the writ, requiring him to have the bodies of William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, in the Court of Queen's Bench, together with the day and cause of their being detained, and had produced the bodies of the said William Evans and John Wheelton in the said Court accordingly; and that the said Court had remanded the said William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, into his custody.

Return delivered in, and read, as follows:— I, the said Sir William Gosset, Knight, Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, in the writ hereunto annexed named, do hereby certify and return; in obedience to the said writ, that before the coming of the said writ to me, to wit, on the twenty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, I did take into my custody, and have thenceforth always hitherto detained in my custody, and still do detain in my custody the said William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, in the said writ named, under and by virtue of a certain warrant, under the hand of the right lion. Charles Shaw Lefevre, Speaker of the said House of Commons, which said warrant is as follows: Mar tit, 21o die Januurii, 1840: Whereas the House of Commons have this day resolved, that William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, sheriffs of Middlesex, having been guilty of a contempt and breach of the Privileges of this House, be committed to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms attending this House:—These are therefore to require you to take into your custody the bodies of the said William Evans and John Wheelton, and them safely to keep during the pleasure of this House; for which this shall be your sufficient warrant. Given under my hand the twenty-first day of January 1840. (Signed) "CHARLES SHAW LEFEVRE, Speaker. To the Sergeant-at-Arms attending the House of Commons. And I do hereby further certify and return, in obedience to the said writ, that the above is the cause of my taking and detaining in my custody, as in the said writ mentioned, the said William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, the bodies of which said William Evans, esquire, and John Wheelton, esquire, I have here ready, as in and by the said writ I am commanded.