§ MR. WHITESIDEmoved, "that there be laid before this House, a Copy of the Indictment found at the last Assizes for the county of Sligo against Michael Gethin, Henry Simpson, and James Simpson, directed by this House to be prosecuted for certain grave offences by the Attorney General for Ireland." He was told that it was impossible to obtain a conviction against these men from a common jury of Sligo and he therefore recommended that the case should be removed by certiorari into the Queen's Bench.
§ SIR JOHN YOUNGsaid, it was unusual to ask for the production of such a document as this, but still less was it usual for a Member of the House to give the Government advice as to the course which a law officer of the Crown ought to take. The observations of the hon. and learned Gentleman betrayed a want of courtesy from one Member of the bar to another.
§ MR. WHITESIDEsaid, he was at a loss to understand the latter remark of the right hon. Baronet, because, when the privileges of the House had been so shamefully violated as to induce a Select Committee unanimously to recommend that the parties should be prosecuted, he had a right, as a Member of the House, to make the observation he did, and to warn the right hon. Baronet of the fact, that it was in the power of the Attorney General to have an impartial trial by removing the matter into the Queen's Bench. He made that observation in no invidious sense, nor did he intend to make the least reflection upon the mode in which the former prosecution had been conducted.
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLsaid, it was 488 not intended to have a second trial, and he should be glad to know if the hon. and learned Gentleman intended to press the Address for a copy of the indictment?
§ MR. WHITESIDEreplied in the negative.
§ Motion, by leave, withdrawn.