HC Deb 18 June 1863 vol 171 c1045
MR. CONINGHAM

said, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, Whether he will lay upon the table of the House a Report of the Court Martial on Paymaster Smales of the 6th Dragoons, together with any paper or memorandum connected with the trial?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON

, in reply, said, the proceedings of this Court Martial had been already brought very prominently before the notice of the House, and a great many unauthorized extracts of the evidence had been already published. The subject had been already debated in that House, and Mr. Speaker had decided that the hon. Member for Brighton was in order in reading from papers in his own possession, but which were not generally in the possession of the House. It was perfectly true that the proceedings of the Court Martial had been published in India. Under those circumstances, the Government had no objection to lay on the table the proceedings of that Court Martial, as well as the observations made by the Commander-in-Chief in India in confirming them. He (the Marquess of Hartington) must add the expression of a hope that the House would not be disposed to consider this a precedent, or that the Government, in conceding the production of those papers, admitted the principle that it was in any way competent or expedient for the House to constitute itself into a court of criticism upon the proceedings of legally-constituted Courts Martial.

MR. CONINGHAM

said, he wished to know when the Papers would be laid upon the table?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON

was understood to say immediately.