§ MR. BRADYsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Treasury what is the intention of the Government to do in reference to the Report of the Select Committee on the Petition of Mr. William Henry Barber.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEsaid, the case of Mr. Barber had been under the consideration of the Government for some time, and no little difficulty had been experienced in deciding how to deal with it. On the one hand, a precedentought not to be laid down which might operate injuriously in other cases of an analogous nature; and, on the other hand, this particular case was, to a certain degree, taken out of the ordinary category by the fact that it had been investigated by a Select Committee of that House, who had unanimously recommended it to the special consideration of the Government. The various propositions that had been brought forward had received the attention of the Government, which had felt that the only unobjectionable mode of proceeding would be to give some recognition of the sufferings which Mr. Barber had certainly undergone. This would be attained by a grant of public money to Mr. Barber; and accordingly in the Estimates for the coming year such a sum would be included as, without pretending to compensate him for what he had endured, would still be an acknowledgment on the part of Parliament and the country that he had suffered considerably, and was, therefore, entitled to some consideration of this nature.