Lords Sitting of 8 May 1826

CORN LAWS—MR. JACOB'S REPORT.
Lord Kingwished to mention a subject of importance, inasmuch as it was materially connected with the privileges of their lordships' House. He had lately seen, in a printed pamphlet, a statement which was a gross and a scandalous libel upon the House. He did not mean to say that it was also a false libel; for, libel as it was, it might be very true. But then their lordships well knew that, in the eye of the law, the fact of a libel being true was a greater proof of malice, and only added to the guilt of the libeller. He had seen the statement of which he complained in the first edition of the libellous publication to which he had alluded, and which he understood was now undergoing a second edition. The libel, he believed, would make its appearance in the second edition also, and thus be further propagated. He should now read it to their lordships, and when they heard it, he had no doubt that it would have on them—as had been said of libellous publications in another place—the effect of making their hair stand on end; and he was sure they would agree with him in considering it a scandalous libel and breach of the privileges of their lordships' House. It was a passage of a memoir circulated among the landowners of a part of the continent [Appendix 9 of Mr. Jacob's Report]. Alluding to the post-

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ponement of the corn question by parliament, from session to session, it was said, "Our ardent hopes for a rise in the prices of corn, founded on the expectation that England may open its ports, have unhappily again vanished. The new liberal policy adopted by England, with regard to commerce, has not been extended to the corn trade; and the motions of Mr. Huskisson, and Mr. Whitmore, as well as the numerous petitions that were laid before parliament, did not meet with any success. It is doubtful whether they will have a better fate next session, should even a new parliament assemble; the influence of the members of the House of Lords, whose interests (in this instance) are at variance with those of the community at large, being too prevailing." He did not know whether it would be proper to call the printer to the bar, and make him answerable to their lordships for the libel, as it appeared that the pamphlet was published by the House of Commons. This he collected from the votes of that House. On the 14th of March last, the instructions given to Mr. Jacob were laid on the table of the House of Commons, and the report made by him in consequence of those instructions, and in which the libel appeared, was stated in the title-page to be printed by order of that House. He saw, therefore, no other way of proceeding, than by their lordships having a free conference with the Commons. There were precedents for such a proceeding, though he believed there had not been a free conference between the two Houses for a century past. On that occasion, the members of both Houses got warm, came to high words, and, as tradition informs us, actually to blows. In the present, he did not know whether the noble and learned lord on the woolsack would not be so animated in defence of the landed interest, that the president of the Board of Trade might be induced to lay hands on him, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to give him a back-handed blow. Such a result, he was afraid, might be expected from the temper of the parties. Of course their lordships would all take part in the fray; they would step in and rescue the noble and learned lord from his enemies. He did not know, however, what would be done in the mean time with the seals: he was afraid some mischief might happen to them in the scuffle. If, however, it was the opinion of the House that this mode of proceeding
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should be adopted, he would move that a message be sent to the Commons to ask a free conference.
The Earl of Limerickcongratulated himself that for once he should agree with the noble lord. He did really think that the paragraph which had been quoted contained a libellous insinuation, and rejoiced that the noble lord had in any way brought the subject before the House. The country was at the eve of a general election; their lordships knew the state of distress into which the manufacturers were plunged; and he was afraid that measures were now brewing which would place the agriculturists in a similar situation. The noble lord deprecated any contest between the two Houses of Parliament.

CATHOLIC CLAIMS.
Lord Dudley and Wardpresented a petition from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Roscommon, praying to be relieved from those disqualifications under which they laboured. The petition, he observed, was signed by several thousands, and this circumstance might readily be credited, when it was considered, that the Roman Catholic religion was the religion of the great majority of the country, of which Roscommon formed a part, and which, until three hundred years ago, had been the religion of the whole of Europe. However erroneous that faith might be, the Roman Catholics had an excuse for not abandoning it; for too few steps had been taken to convince them of their error, either by the government or by the clergy. They had been told that their religion was one of superstition and idolatry; but not much, as far as he had yet heard, had been offered to them in the way of argument, to convince them of the justice of this reproach. They had formerly laboured under heavy pains and disqualifications. They had been released by the bounty and wisdom of parliament from all those penalties, and the greater part of those disqualifications, and they prayed to be exempt from the remainder. He was not disposed to violate that sort of tacit convention, by which it was understood this subject was to be allowed to rest undisturbed during the present session of parliament; and, if he had any influence with the Roman Catholics, he would advise them to refer their case to those persons who had so ably advanced their cause. The Roman Catholics, as far as parliament was concerned, were in

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very good hands. They would do well to recollect the difficulties they had to encounter from the opinion—and he believed it to be a sincere opinion—which prevailed of the great danger that would attend the granting of their claims, both to the constitution and the state; and also to consider, that their best method of obtaining their object was, to remain tranquil under the trying, and he might say, provoked, state in which they were placed. With respect to the question itself, he adhered to the opinion he had before expressed in that House, and which had been supported by his vote in parliament on every occasion on which the question had been brought forward since he had a seat in the other House. That opinion had been confirmed by reflection and by the course of time; for this question was not a stationary one, it gained ground every year. It was impossible, however, to disguise the fact, that the state in which Ireland was placed by this question, constituted the weak side of this great, victorious, and he might otherwise call it almost invincible, nation; and, if a war were to break out, every person must look with anxiety towards that country where the people laboured under such unjust disqualifications.
Ordered to lie on the table.