HC Deb 23 June 1845 vol 81 cc1033-6
Mr. Serjeant Murphy

trusted that the House would bear with him for a few minutes while he made an explanation personal to himself; in the sequel he apprehended it would be seen that allusions had been made to him elsewhere, not justified by the real facts of the case, and which, if unexplained, were calculated to do him deep injury. He wished shortly to state the circumstances under which three Bills had been entrusted to him, his conduct regarding which had been made the subject of animadversion. Those Bills were to regulate the common law process in England, Ireland, and Scotland, the object being that there should exist an intercommunication of process between the three parts of the United Kingdom. If any party were domiciled in this country for a single day, however his usual residence might be in Ireland or in Scotland, he was to be amenable to the tribunals of England at the will of any creditor. In another object of the Bills all must cor- dially concur, viz., to do away with the circuitous, inefficient, and onerous process against parties going out of the jurisdiction of the courts. To this object he subscribed to the fullest extent; but to the former he could not give his approbation. The Bills had been introduced last year; but opposition was raised to them in several quarters, including the Attorney General for Ireland, and the Lord Advocate of Scotland; and, in addition, he might mention that there was no adoption of them by Government. Upon leaving for circuit last year, he had entrusted these Bills to the care of one upon whom there could rest no charge of want of steadiness or assiduity—the hon. Member for Cirencester—who had taken great pains on the subject, and had had several interviews with Members of the upper House. Somehow their Lordships would not consent to pass them, and they were dropped. Nevertheless, without any alteration, they had been re-introduced in the present Session. They passed the other House of Parliament, and were sent down to the Commons, and a noble and learned Lord had requested him (Serjeant Murphy) to take charge of them. He had undertaken the duty, but he found, in the meantime, that a great deal of opposition had been raised against them. Remonstrances crowded in upon him from all quarters, and from men of all politics, who complained that it was a change in the law extremely injurious to Irishmen, whose visits being frequent to this country, and in great numbers, it would make them liable to great expense in being sued out of Ireland upon any disputed contract. The members of the profession in Dublin also remonstrated, because it would take a considerable quantity of business from the jurisdiction of their courts. The consequence was, that he had felt it necessary to address the noble and learned promoter of the Bills, and most respectfully to ask leave to decline having anything further to do with them. The answer to his letter bore no date; but he (Mr. Serjeant Murphy) believed that he received it on the 1st of May. It was in these terms:— My dear Murphy—You are quite right to wash your hands of the obnoxious bills. I shall be perfectly satisfied if Cripps takes the charge of them. I remain yours truly, CAMPBELL. Mr. Serjeant Murphy, M.P. It would, perhaps, be in the recollection of the House that he had adopted the very expression of the noble and learned Lord, for he had said that he washed his hands of the Bills. What he had read, taken alone, was not an abandonment of the measures by the noble and learned Lord; but in the afternoon of the same day he received another note from his Lordship, which ran thus:— My dear Murphy—Personally I do not care one farthing about the Bills. I cannot possibly understand the opposition to them, as they introduce a palpable improvement, without trenching on the pecuniary interests of any class or individual, but I have not the smallest objection to their being allowed to drop.—Yours truly, CAMPBELL. He communicated on the subject with the hon. Member for Cirencester. They compared notes on the probability of passing the Bills, and agreed that, considering the opposition, it was out of the question they could pass. When this opinion was communicated to the noble Lord he seemed reconciled to the loss of his offspring, and only anxious for their decent interment. Perhaps his complaint now was, that the ceremony had not been quite as decorously performed as he wished. Having thus stated the facts, he (Mr. Serjeant Murphy) did not wish to trench on Parliamentary privilege, but briefly to advert to what had occurred in another place. From what he had seen and heard he had reason to think that the noble and learned Lord was impressed with a notion that the mode in which his Bills had been dealt with was altogether without his authority; but only a few days before his hon. Friend the Member for Cirencester had stated to the noble and learned Lord that the Bills could not pass, and the noble and learned Lord had assented to the proposition. A statement had also been made by one of the highest personages in another place, by one whose opinion on any matter regarding the administration of the law, or any person concerned in it, must carry the greatest weight; he (Mr. Serjeant Murphy) was not blind to the fact that that statement, though made in a moment of jocular allusion, was calculated to do him very deep and serious injury. That noble and learned Lord had his sentiment echoed by another noble and learned [Lord, and the impression seemed to be that he (Mr. Serjeant Murphy) had com- mitted a gross breach of confidence, and had sacrificed to an idle and foolish joke what had been entrusted to his care and fidelity. He would only say this, that if he put himself in the place of the noble and learned Lord, and had heard an injurious statement of the kind made, when he had it in his power to give an explanation and had not given it, he should not think that he deserved much praise for suppressing it. It had been said, moreover, and repeated in many quarters, that the reason he had given up the Bills was a selfish and truckling acquiescence to the suggestions of the hon. and learned Member for the county of Cork; but that hon. and learned Member knew, that deep as was his (Mr. Serjeant Murphy's) obligation to him, in common with the rest of his Roman Catholic brethren, and gratefully as he always responded to this feeling when the hon. learned Member was not in the triumphant position he now occupied, and when he had been called upon to defend him in his absence, he had never truckled to him with base and slavish adulation. The first act of his Parliamentary life had been to declare that he would exercise a free and unbiassed judgment; and in a few days it might be known from the public prints, as it might now be heard from him, that the last act of his political life had been, in answer to a demand made by his constituents to join the Conciliation Hall, and adopt Repeal, firmly and respectfully to decline compliance. He hoped that what he had said would exonerate him from the charge of having sacrificed the three Bills to a stupid joke, or of having abandoned them in slavish obedience to the dictation of the hon. and learned Member for Cork.