§ MR. WHALLEYSir, before putting the Question I have upon the Paper, I will ask leave to make a personal explanation in reference to what occurred on the last occasion when I brought this subject before the House. On that occasion, Sir, I may have appeared to disregard your order, repeated, as you stated at the time, to confine my remarks to making intelligible my Question, and was then justly required to resume my seat for having disregarded your orders. For any appearance of having done so, I beg leave to express my regret, and to state that I had no intention whatever to do so. My excuse is, that I was speaking under this impression, no doubt, entirely wrong, that, having intimated my intention to conclude with a Motion, I was in possession of the right of audience beyond that of merely putting the Question on the Paper; and again, Sir, I beg leave to express my entire acquiescence in your ruling. I now beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, with reference to the Tichborne prosecution, Whether it is the fact that Charles Orton received from the Treasury during the progress of the trial a weekly payment of twenty-one shillings, such payment being made by Police Inspector Denning, and the said Charles Orton being dealt with for this purpose under the name of Webb; and, as the said Charles Orton was not called as a witness on the part of the prosecution, what was the object for which payment to him, if any, was so made; and whether the honourable Gentleman will now inform the House of the total cost of this prosecution, and the items of the expenditure, as has been done in other cases?
§ MR. W. H. SMITHI must remind the hon. Gentleman and the House that he asked me this Question, in almost the same terms, on the 5th of August, 1875, and I then replied that, seeing the House had, on a former occasion, determined on a division that the information which he sought should not be given him, I did not consider it consistent with my duty to the House or to the hon. Mem- 14 ber to answer the Question as he requested me. I think the decision which the House then came to is still binding on me, and that I should not be consulting either the convenience or the time of the House if I answered the Question which the hon. Gentleman has now put to me.