§ The Earl of Warwicksaid, that he would not have interrupted the House proceeding to the order of the day, if he was not about to leave town to-morrow. Their Lordships would recollect that he had been called upon to make some observations respecting the magistrates that had been appointed in the town of Birmingham, and to advert to the return that had been made respecting these Corporation Magistrates. In consequence of what he had then felt it to be his duty to say, he had been attacked in the public press, and a number of letters had gone abroad reflecting on his conduct. In these papers, the parties who had attempted to fix accusations on him, had made use of false statements. He was the last man to make complaint of comments being made on his conduct as a public man, and he had almost been induced to pursue the same course in this instance that he had done in others, and take no notice of the statements. On consideration, however, he felt that he was bound to say a few words in reference to the charges that had been made against him for the manner in which he discharged his duty as Lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire. To the whole of the statement that he had made in the House on the former occasion he adhered to the very letter. The charge that had been brought against him, as to his recommending persons to be appointed magistrates, was of a very serious character. It had been asserted that he looked entirely to the political feelings of those he recommended to be placed in the commission of the peace rather than to their qualifications for the office. He would not allow a charge to be made against him without stating that it was not true. If their Lordships pleased, he would re-state what he had asserted the other night. He then stated, and he now repeated it, that not one individual in the county of Warwick had been recommended by him to be placed in the commission of the peace, because his politics agreed with his own, or that he had ever refrained from recommending a person because he differed from him in politics. It might be that there were many proper and deserving persons in the county of Warwick who were well fitted to act as magistrates, but he had not refrained from nominating them from any political feeling. He had been Lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire 1140 for seventeen years, and he had been charged during that time with having nominated many acting clergymen as magistrates. Now, during this period of seventeen years he had only placed twelve clergymen on the Commission. In the first year of his lieutenancy he had named six, and in the last sixteen years the other six. In the last Commission only one was nominated. He had been very much pressed, however, by many gentlemen to place clergymen on the list of magistrates, and he had often been told that his neglecting to do so had proved injurious. He did not believe that on this point any person who held the situation which he had the honour to hold had been more scrupulous than himself.
§ Subject dropped.