§ Order read, for Attendance in custody of Charles Edmund Grissell;
§ The Serjeant at Arms brought Charles Edmund Grissell to the Bar of the House:—Whereupon Mr. Speaker addressed the prisoner as followeth:—
§
Charles Edmund Grissell; your conduct last Session in connection with the inquiry before a Committee on a Private Bill was the subject of patient inquiry by a Select Committee of this House, which Committee came to the following conclusion:—
Your Committee are unanimously of opinion that Mr. Charles Edmund Grissell, in asserting that he could control the decisions of the Committee on the Tower High Level Bridge (Metropolis) Bill, and in the offer that he made to do so, was guilty of a breach of the Privileges of the House.
§ Thereupon an Order was made by this House for your attendance before this House. That Order was disobeyed. Again you evaded the Warrant issued for your apprehension by proceeding beyond the jurisdiction of this House, and two days before the prorogation of Parliament you returned to this Country and placed yourself within reach of my Warrant. You were taken into custody just before the prorogation, and on the prorogation of Parliament you were discharged.
§ This House has now been in Session for nearly four weeks, and you have delayed until yesterday, when public notice had been taken of your conduct, to make your submission. This House, 241 nevertheless, is willing to hear any explanation which you may think proper to offer to it, with respect to your conduct.
§ Mr. Grissell: Sir, I feel deeply grateful to this most honourable House for giving me an opportunity of personally expressing my sincere and deep regret for the grave offence of which I was adjudged guilty, which I now deeply deplore, of which I now plead guilty, and for which I now beg to be allowed to tender my most humble apology. I beg humbly to be allowed to add that my failing to present a Petition at the opening of the Session was not owing to any intentional disrespect to this honourable House, but because of a paragraph which appeared in The Times which made my friends think that this honourable House did not wish that its business should be impeded by so insignificant and humble an individual as myself. I humbly throw myself on the merciful consideration of this honourable House, and beg to offer my most complete submission for my grave offence.
§ MR. SPEAKERUnless this House has any desire that the prisoner at the Bar should be examined, he will now withdraw, in the custody of the Serjeant at Arms, while his conduct becomes subject to the consideration of the House. Is it your pleasure that Charles Edmund Grissell do withdraw? [Cries of "Hear, hear!"] The Serjeant at Arms will withdraw with the prisoner at the Bar.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERSir, I apprehend that the course which it will be most appropriate to take in the matter of Charles Edmund Grissell will be to order that he be committed to Her Majesty's gaol of Newgate for the offence of which he has been found guilty. The House is aware that there is this difference between the proceedings of the House of Commons and those of the other House of Parliament—that the other House has power to commit an offender for a definite period; but this is not the practice of the House of Commons. We have, however, if we desire to commit an offender, power to do so, and that commitment remains in force until either the House is prorogued, or until some Motion is made for releasing the prisoner from custody. We have, therefore, only to consider—first, whe- 242 ther Mr. Grissell should be committed at all; and, if so, whether he should be committed to the custody of the Serjeant at Arms or to the gaol of Newgate. At the close of last Session, when he came before the House on the day before Parliament was prorogued, he was committed to Newgate; and I apprehend that will be the course for us to follow. I therefore move—
That Charles Edmund Grissell, having evaded punishment for his offence against the Privileges of this House, until the close of last Session, be committed to Her Majesty's Gaol of Newgate, and that Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrants accordingly.
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERI beg to second that Motion. We should have been glad if we had not felt it necessary. I think this is one of those cases in which the House would always wish to err on the side of leniency; partly because we do not wish to exercise our powers of punishment, and partly because we are not anxious to assert our Privilege unless it should be absolutely necessary. We have also the feeling of not wishing to exaggerate the importance of such an act as has been committed. But, looking at what was done with the offender whose offence was, so far as we can judge, not nearly so bad as that of this person, and looking at the course he has adopted, I do not see that we can do otherwise than that now proposed. I confess that what was said by my right hon. Friend the Member for the University of Cambridge (Mr. Spencer Walpole) did not make the case stronger against this person than it was before. We all know that my right hon. Friend would put it as leniently as possible; but I think there has been no submission sufficient to allow him to escape from punishment. I think it due to the House to state that the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer had shown me the Resolution that he proposed yesterday, and that I fully concurred in it; but I must take blame to myself for being under some misapprehension in this matter. I thought we should still have been able, if that Resolution had been passed in its original form, to take what steps might seem advisable. I need not dwell, however, on that question, and I now beg to second the Motion.
§ Motion agreed to.
243§ Ordered, that Charles Edmund Grissell, having evaded punishment for his offences against the Privileges of this House, until the close of the last Session, be committed to Her Majesty's Gaol of Newgate, and that Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrants accordingly.—[Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer.)