§ MR. BRIGHT rose to put a question to the noble Lord at the head of the Government, in the absence of the Secretary for the Colonies, with respect to the Governor of Gibraltar. During the last eighteen months he had had to present some half-dozen memorials to the successive Ministers for the Colonies, complaining of the conduct of the Governor of Gibraltar with regard to his interference with the trade of the port. The Duke of Newcastle, in an interview with a deputation which waited upon him from Gibraltar, gave them reason to expect that Sir R. Gardiner's term of office would then almost immediately expire, and his successors had intimated the same thing; but Sir R. Gardiner still remained there, and he (Mr. Bright) had received fresh memorials to present with regard to fresh grievances. He wished, therefore, to ask the noble Lord whether anything had been done to recall Sir R. Gardiner, and to appoint a rational man in his place?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONthought the language just made use of by the hon. Member was not quite the language to be applied to an old and deserving public servant. It might be all very well for hon. Members to use such epithets one to another in the course of debate, but he was sure the hon. Gentleman's good feeling must tell him that it was not the way in which to speak of an absent public servant. Sir R. Gardiner's period of service had expired, and he was only going on performing the duties of his office until his successor was appointed. The hon. Gentleman had no doubt referred to the complaints which were made of Sir R. Gardiner's refusal to permit the exportation of certain things which were considered to be articles of war, consisting of iron tubes, he believed, for the boilers of steam-vessels, and which had been imported into Gibraltar without his knowledge, contrary to a regulation which required that the permission of the Governor should be obtained in all such cases. The instructions which Sir R. Gardiner received from home were to grant permission for exportation in this instance, but for the future not to allow the standing regulations to be departed from.
§ MR. BRIGHTsaid, the case referred to was only one of many cases which he had had to represent to the Colonial Office. As the noble Lord had entered into the circumstances of this case, he thought, in fairness to the commercial house concerned, he had a right to state that, not only had the Governor done what the noble Lord stated, but he afterwards gave to another mercantile house that permission which he refused to the first.