§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEasked for the indulgence of the House while he made a personal explanation in reply to an attack which he understood had been made upon him at an early hour that morning by the noble Lord the Member for South Hants (Lord Henry Scott). He understood that in the discussion which took place on the appointment of the Committee on the New Forest Bill, the noble Lord had made certain charges against him (Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) with reference to his conduct in relation to that Bill, and that the hon. Member for Newcastle (Mr. Cowen) had kindly suggested that he (Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) ought to have an opportunity of being present to reply to the noble Lord; and that the Chancellor of the Exchequer thereupon said that he would have that opportunity upon the present occasion. Now, in the New Forest Bill there were two or three points upon which the interests of the Crown and of the commoners were opposed to one another. These points the noble Lord proceeded to specify, when—
§ MR. SPEAKERinterposed, and said the noble Lord was going beyond the bounds of a personal explanation, and entering upon the details of a Bill which was before the House.
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEbowed to the decision of the Chair. He had only wished to mention that there were questions in dispute between the Crown and the commoners. The noble Lord the Member for South Hants was a commoner of the New Forest. In the debate on the second reading of the Bill at a very late hour, he (Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) took some objections to the possible appointment on the Committee of a Gentleman having a personal interest in the questions involved. He was then aware that his right hon. Friend (Mr. Cowper-Temple) also had an interest in the New Forest, though one of smaller extent than that of the noble 1493 Lord the Member for South Hants, and he knew that his objection applied to his right hon. Friend as well as to the noble Lord; but he thought it better not to mention any individual commoners by name, but to speak of the commoners generally. A few days afterwards a letter appeared in The Times which led to a correspondence. In a second letter, which he wrote over a week ago, but which appeared in The Times only yesterday, he was obliged to introduce those two names; but the letter was couched in studiously courteous terms towards the noble Lord and his right hon. Friend. That being the case, he understood the noble Lord late last night, on the nomination of the Committee, complained that he (Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) had made certain statements on the subject in The Times, and was not then in his place in the House to substantiate them. His answer to that was, that his two letters to The Times were not the beginning of the controversy which had sprung out of what had occurred in the House, but were replies to others, and he hoped they were not offensive in their tone, either to the noble Lord, or to his right hon. Friend. He had learnt that the noble Lord also animadverted on his having in his letters objected to his right hon. Friend's (Mr. Cowper-Temple's) fitness to be a Member of the Committee, and yet not having come forward in the House to support that objection. He admitted the noble Lord had a perfect right to comment on his conduct. Having made those statements in the newspapers, and expressed his opinion unreservedly, that his right hon. Friend ought not to sit on that Committee, he confessed that he felt he was placed in rather an awkward position by circumstances which had occurred since he wrote those letters. He was not present in the House to support his objection, because he had gained his chief object, for the noble Lord the Member for South Hants was not nominated to serve on the Committee. The noble Lord's interest in the New Forest was very large, while that of his right hon. Friend was almost infinitesimal. Again, although the nomination proceeded nominally from the Secretary of the Treasury, yet the proposition to put his right hon. Friend on the Committee practically emanated from that (the Opposition) side of the House. On a matter of 1494 that kind he did not wish to go counter to the opinion of a Gentleman of so much greater experience than himself as the right hon. Member for Clackmannan (Mr. Adam), and therefore he thought it would have been an act of presumption on his part if he had come forward and said that the circumstances which satisfied that right hon. Gentleman did not satisfy him. A further consideration which had some weight with him was, that having himself been appointed a Member of the Committee along with his right hon. Friend (Mr. Cowper-Temple), his sincere desire was to act courteously and harmoniously with him and all the other Members. If, however, he had had the least reason to suppose that the noble Lord intended to take notice of his letters, or otherwise refer to him, he would have been most anxious to avoid the appearance of anything like discourtesy towards him in not being present when the appointment of the Select Committee took place.