THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I beg leave to mention that I have received a letter from Mr. Walpole, which he has written to me in consequence of a passage which occurred in a speech I addressed to your Lordships on Thursday night, when the Motion relative to Sir Robert Collier was under discussion. Mr. Walpole is desirous that I should correct a statement which appears in the report published in The Times of the speech I then delivered. I believe that the report in The Times is a substantially accurate one of what I said. Mr. Walpole observes—
With reference to Mr. Beales's appointment to a County Court Judgeahip, you are reported to have said—'Mr. Beales had been called upon by Mr. Walpole to assist him in removing difficulties which had arisen under steps he had advised.' But the real facts of the case are these. One night (I think it was the Tuesday night) the friends of Mr. Beales sent in a message to me at the House of Commons requesting to see me on the subject of the Hyde Park riots, and they asked me to give to Mr. Beales and them an interview at the Home Office, which I agreed to do on the following day. Neither then nor afterwards, however, did 'I call on Mr. Beales to remove any difficulties,' &c., but what I did say, on Mr. Beales's suggestion, was this, that no demonstration of the police should be made if he would do his best to induce his followers to withdraw from the Park.I would mention also that Mr. Beales states in a letter that the moment he found that the Park gates were closed he withdrew the meeting to Trafalgar Square, and that he did not hear until the next morning of the outrages that had taken place.