HC Deb 27 July 1858 vol 151 cc2191-2
MR. SCHNEIDER

said, he wished to put a question to the hon. and learned Gentleman the Attorney General which involved a question of the Breach of the Prileges of that House. It was his intention to have brought the matter forward at length, but he did not wish to stand between the proceeding with the India Bill, and he should content himself with asking a question of the hon. and learned Gentleman, and bring the matter before the House on Friday. He would therefore beg to ask the hon. and learned Gentleman whether in his capacity as Attorney General, and in the discharge of his duty to Her Majesty, he has received any fee in reference to any Bill in the discussion of which in the House he has taken part, and on which be has voted on a division?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Sir, it has been the practice from very early times, whenever a Bill is brought into Parliament, whether it is brought forward by any Department of the Government, or is a Bill brought before the House at the instance of an individual Member, which involves any question of the rights of the Crown to any property of any description, to submit the Bill, or the clauses which relate to the rights of the Crown, to one or other, or both of the Law Officers of the Crown, the Attorney General and the Solicitor General. That practice is well known—must be well known to the Members of every Government who have sat in the House in the present century, and must be and is known to the hon. Gentleman who put the question. During the present Session two Bills, one of which was recently before the House, directly affected the rights of the Crown to property of considerable value. Those Bills, in conformity with ancient practice, were submitted to the Attorney General, and I believe to my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor General, under the usual circumstances and with the usual fees attached to them; and certainly and undoubtedly in the discussion on that Bill the Attorney General and the Solicitor General, as they felt bound in duty to the Crown to do, did take part, and on one, two, and, I believe, three divisions, I myself, and I believe my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor General divided in support of the particular views they bad taken respecting it.