HC Deb 07 March 1861 vol 161 cc1537-8
SIR LAWRENCE PALK

I wish, Sir, to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether he has received a copy of a state- ment made by Mr. Laing, in anticipation of his departure for India, in his own vindication, to a Committee appointed by the Great Western of Canada Railway Company, April 4, 1860, to investigate certain charges impugning his character, and, if so, if he will lay it on the Table of the House?

SIR CHARLES WOOD

I have seen the Report of the Committee of Shareholders of the Great Western of Canada Railway Company, appended to which is the evidence of Mr. Laing before that Committee. I do not think I can lay before the House the Report of a Committee of shareholders of a private company. The hon. Gentleman will see by a letter in the papers this day that legal proceedings will probably be instituted, and we ought, I think, entirely to suspend our judgment, and not prejudge the case until Mr. Laing has had an opportunity of explaining the matter.

MR. ROEBUCK

The right hon. Gentleman has mistaken the question. The question is whether Mr. Laing laid a statement before him before he left the country? and to that question the right hon. Gentleman has given no answer.

SIR CHARLES WOOD

The question put to me is whether I have seen a statement—["No!"] I will read the Question: —"Whether I have received the copy of a statement made by Mr. Laing, in anticipation of his departure for India, in his own vindication, to a Committee," &c. My answer is that I have seen it only in the shape of an appendix to that Report, and I hardly think the Secretary of State can be considered in such possession of the Report of a private company that he can be called upon to lay it on the Table of this House.

SIR LAWRENCE PALK

It is not the Report of the Committee of Shareholders to which I now allude, but to a written statement made by Mr. Laing in anticipation of his departure from England and which, I am informed, he transmitted to the right hon. Gentleman.

SIR CHARLES WOOD

If the hon. Gentleman means "did he transmit such a statement to me?" I say, certainly not. But that is not the Question on the Paper.