§ MR. MACKINNONwished to know whether it were within the power and the intention of the Government to prevent the spreading of false news and intelligence by the electric telegraph?
§ SIR G. GREYfeared it would be impossible to prevent the perpetration of such frauds, whether by means of the electric telegraph or otherwise. By the Act of Parliament under which the Electric Telegraph Company was constituted, the Government was invested with power, by a warrant under the hands of the Secretary of State, to take possession of the whole machinery and apparatus of the telegraph, with a view of preventing any intelligence being forwarded without the sanction of the Government. That process, however, involved very considerable expense, as the Government were bound to remunerate the company; and such a, power was only to be used under extraordinary circumstances justifying suspicion.