LORD CAMPBELLBefore the House adjourns, I beg leave, for a few moments, to trespass upon your Lordships' attention, in order to say some words in my own justification; and I shall do so without making an attack upon any person, or affording the slightest ground for any one to complain. It is necessary, my Lords, that I should adopt this course, because my character as a Judge has been assailed, inasmuch as it has been supposed that I, in my place in this House, have pronounced an opinion respecting a case that was pending; had I done so, I should have done what was most reprehensible; whereas I did no more than what I felt it incumbent upon me to do, namely, to give an opinion upon an abstract question of law. Now, unless I gave an opinion in such a case, I might ask, for what purpose have I the honour of sitting in your Lordships' House? 70 And, my Lords, that such was my duty is an opinion which has been held by almost all my illustrious predecessors, and much to the public advantage, for it has been the means of informing your Lordships what the law really was. With respect to the practice of taking notice of what may be said in another place, I agree with my hon. and learned Friend in thinking it to be irregular, and a course attended with much inconvenience; but there are exceptional cases, and of that nature was the case which arose. Looking to what was stated in the journals to have occurred in "another place" regarding the law of England respecting aliens being amenable to that law, I thought that the law was misapprehended and misrepresented, and that the most mischievous consequences might have followed if it remained uncontradicted, and I conceived it to be my duty to contradict it. I am, however, bound to believe, and I do believe, that the hon. and learned Gentleman who was supposed to have made that statement did not intend it to be understood in the manner in which it appeared in the public journals; but every one who read what he was represented to have said must have come to the same conclusion as I did, and I was recommended by some of the Judges of the land to take the earliest opportunity of stating what the law was; which I did. It was with the view of not allowing an erroneous impression as to the nature of our law to prevail that I explained what it was unversally held to be, and I should have thought it a departure from my duty to your Lordships had I not followed that course.
LORD BROUGHAMMy Lords, I entirely agree with my noble and learned Friend, that his judicial position ought not to deprive him of freedom of speech in this House upon a question of law, and at the same time deprive this House and the country at large of the value of his opinion upon such questions. The same argument might apply, and the same objections might be urged, not only to my noble and learned Friend, but to the noble and learned Lord who was on the Woolsack at the time, to myself, and to the noble and learned Lord upon the cross bench (Lord St. Leonards); for, although we are not Judges of the Court of Appeal, we sit in the Court of Error, and the very same point might come before us in the last resort. The noble Earl at the head of the Government has made several very satisfactory statements as to the disposition of himself and his col- 71 leagues in respect to questions relating to the amendment of the law and measures connected with social progress. My Lords, while I thank him for those expressions, taking them at their value as professions and promises, I shall rather be disposed to look to the acts of my noble Friend and his colleagues, as he himself intimated that we ought rather to judge him by that test than by his professions—and for this reason that professions cost nothing, and therefore wise men to whom they are addressed are prone to take them at their value— prime cost—which I will not say is nothing, but all events something very small; and I shall therefore look to the manner in which the professions are fulfilled and the promises performed. I have no doubt, whatever, but that my noble Friend and his Colleagues will place us under those real obligations which arise from the performance of good promises.
§ The EARL OF DERBYthen moved the adjournment of the House to Monday, the 15th of March, and said he would take the opportunity of assuring the noble and learned Lord who had just spoken that it had always been his desire to promise less than he hoped to be able and intended to perform.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Eight o'clock, to Friday, 12th inst.