§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a correspondence published in the "Suffolk Chronicle" of March 7th, between Lord John Hervey and the Lord Lieutenant of the county (the Earl of Stradbroke), arising out of a complaint made by the former that he had seen a magistrate for the county taking an active part in mobbing, pelting, and attempting to hustle out of the Exchange Mr. Easton (at that time a candidate for the representation of East Suffolk) and his friends, in a manner which might easily have led to a serious breach of the peace; whether he remarked the following passage in the letter of the Lord Lieutenant, dated February 26th:—
The Conservatives were annoyed at finding themselves opposed by a Berkshire attorney who, it is supposed, is still land agent to Sir F. Goldsmid, and whose father was land agent to the Duke of Wellington, and received from his Grace a pension till he died, instead of meeting in open battle a representative of the Waveney interest, or of some great landed proprietor. The result of the late contest never admitted of a doubt; and it is pretty well known who paid Mr. Easton's expenses;and, if the letter is authentic, whether the Government intend to take any action in the matter?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSIt is certainly wonderful the amount of things to which my attention is supposed to be called. Though I have no objection to answer a Question which is fairly put, I have the strongest objection to answer a Question which only represents half the case. As the hon. Member has thought fit to call the attention of the House and 2010 the country to the last paragraph of a certain letter, I cannot help saying that it is a pity he did not call the attention of the House and the country to the former paragraph of the same letter. The Lord Lieutenant, in writing to Lord John Hervey—and writing in the first instance more in the character of a friend than as the Lord Lieutenant writing to a person who had complained to him—says—
No doubt it would have boon wise if Major Whitbread had endeavoured to appease the excited feelings of the company. You accuse him of encouraging them. He replies that he pushed and was pushed against, and that you also had pushed. I have in the course of my life been placed in the same disagreeable position, and if a man is pushed down he may be dangerously trampled upon.He then expresses a view which I am bound to say I think is a very sound one. He says—"Surely, under these circumstances, it would be best to forget the whole transaction." Having thus dealt with the case complained of, the last paragraph might have been treated as irrelevant to the subject, and as coming from an old gentleman who had long known the person who had written to him, and who replied in a friendly spirit.