§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEI trust you will permit me, my Lords, before proceeding to a question on which I fear we shall have this night much difference of opinion, to advert for a moment to another subject, on which I am sure that there can be but one opinion and but one feeling among your Lordships, I allude to the unfortunate occurrence which has taken place within the last forty-eight hours. My Lords, there are offences of a nature at once so odious and so disgusting, but at the same time so paltry and so contemptible, that it is impossible to speak of them with the seriousness which the malignity of the attempt requires, and with the contempt which the absurdity of the purpose excites in every reasonable mind. All that your Lordships need to be informed of on the present occasion is, that the result of the inquiries made into the offence which was directed against the sacred person of Her Majesty on Saturday last does 684 not lead to the disclosure of any circumstances which would justify a commitment for the crime of high treason. Had such a commitment been justified by the circumstances of the case, I am sure that it would be the instantaneous and unanimous wish of your Lordships to go up to Her Majesty's throne with an address expressive of your abhorrence of any such design. But this is not the case here. Life has not been at all endangered; and the commitment has been made out simply for a misdemeanour under the Act passed in 1842, which appears to me singularly well adapted to meet the atrocious nature of the crime, and the contemptible mode in which it was attempted to be perpetrated. I rise, my Lords, to state to you that upon these grounds I do not intend to propose that you should adopt any address to Her Majesty; on the contrary, I think that you should leave the wretched author of this offence to the contempt which he merits, and, without attaching to him that notoriety and importance which he sought to obtain, and of which he was, perhaps, ambitious, should leave him to meet that severe but degrading punishment from which, if guilty, he must not be permitted to escape.
LORD STANLEYMy Lords, I must say that the concluding part of the speech of the noble Marquess has relieved me from a very painful feeling which the commencement of his address excited in my mind. I entirely concur in the propriety of the course adopted by the noble Marquess; and I rejoice that it is not the intention of Her Majesty's Government to give to this most contemptible and disgraceful outrage the consideration and importance which would have attached to it—even in the mind of the culprit himself—by making it a subject of an address to Her Majesty. I am quite certain, if Her Majesty's life had been in the slightest degree endangered, or if there had been any serious attempt to inflict injury upon Her Majesty's person, there would have been an unanimous expression of loyalty and attachment in this House—there would have been an unanimous expression of thankfulness that such an attempt had been frustrated, and of cordial congratulation to Her Majesty upon her escape from such injury—but I will add also, that the same feeling which would have actuated your Lordships' minds would have found an echo from the whole country, and from every class—and I may al- 685 most venture to say from every individual of every class. So far from thinking it an occasion of congratulation to Her Majesty on an escape from danger—though if there he a subject on which it would be fitting it would be this, when it was supposed that an individual had made an attack upon Her Majesty's person—if there be anything on which to congratulate Her Majesty it would be upon this result of the atrocious attempt, that it called forth from every individual present an expression of indignation and vengeance, to which I believe the paltry culprit very narrowly escaped being sacrificed. I quite concur, therefore, with the noble Marquess in the propriety of leaving this wretched attempt to the contempt it merits; and I rejoice that the Act passed a few years ago visits such offences with a degrading and disgraceful punishment, without the offender being raised to the notoriety which some persons may have desired, and probably this among others, of being held up to the public eye as a great public and perhaps political offender. This person remains exposed to the contempt of all the world, and with the feeling upon the part of every human being that a disgraceful and a degrading punishment has been well merited.
LORD KENYONwas understood to express the deepest regret that Her Majesty had thus been insulted, and his unbounded exultation that she had not been exposed to any danger. After passing an eulogium upon the magnanimous feeling which Her Majesty had displayed, he intimated it be his opinion that there should be some record of the occurrence of this offence left upon the Journals, either by an address to Her Majesty, or by some express resolution. He also suggested to the right rev. Bench the propriety of issuing a prayer of thanksgiving to the Almighty for the gracious protection he had cast over his chosen servant, the Queen of these realms.
LORD BROUGHAMobserved, that there was one reason which had escaped the notice of the noble Baron who had just down why an Address could not be presented on this subject. He should be as ready as the noble Baron to pour out his feelings either in a Resolution, or in an Address, or in any other form which would best express the loyal feelings of their Lordships, upon the mischief attempted to be perpetrated on Her Most Sacred Majesty, but for the awkward position in which he would be placed by joining in an Address before 686 the trial of the offender, who had a right to be fairly tried, and who could not and ought not to be prejudged and condemned by an Address of their Lordships, who, as Judges in the last resort, might be called upon to decide on his guilt or innocence. He, therefore, rejoiced in the fact, that no such Address had been pressed upon the consideration of their Lordships. If their Lordships had been called upon to pass any such Address, it must have been surrounded by many precautions—it must have been guarded by many an "if," as, for instance, "if" the prisoner did so and so, then they said so and so to Her Majesty. He did not say that the offence committed on Saturday last was high treason, neither did he say that it was not; but the attempt that was then made upon Her Majesty was a matter of contempt and disgust to all, and appeared to have proceeded from despicable motives of absurd ambition—in a word, from a morbid love of notoriety. By far the worst thing that the Government could do would be to go against the Act of 1842. Such a course would give the individual the notoriety which he courted; and he, therefore, entreated his noble Friend (Lord Kenyon) to allow the matter to drop, being quite certain that there was an unanimous feeling in the House upon that point.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEHad I proposed, my Lords, an Address to Her Majesty, it would have alluded only to the nature of the offence, and not to the party who committed it, and who was liable to trial for its commission. I believe, however, that even as to the nature of the offence committed, it is infinitely below the crime of high treason; and my noble and learned Friend will allow me to remind him that there was a former attempt to alarm Her Majesty, and that upon that occasion both this and the other House of Parliament dismissed it without an Address, but with an adequate feeling of the contempt which it deserved. I think it advisable that no further notice should be taken of an attempt which was as contemptible as it was atrocious.