General Mr. Fox. General Lord Beau champ. Mr. Fox. Mr. Sheridar. General Smith from the Journals of the House evinced, that Lord Beauchamp, in making this laft pofition, was miftaken. Mr. Fox replied to Lord Beauchamp. He allowed that there would be partiality in ordering Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo to attend the House, if the election were to be hurried on in the manner he apprehended it would be; but he was for deferring the election until this caufe was decided, therefore an order for the attendance of these gentlemen would not betray any partiality. General Smith obferved, that there was a precedent for putting off the election of members for Coventry, in the Borough of Hindon, to which no writ had been fent for electing a member of parliament for the course of two years, Lord Beauchamp replied, that the cafes were totally diffi milar; for the burgeffes of Hindon had been guilty of certain practices, for which that delay to fend a writ of election was a deferved punishment, whereas the inhabitants of Coventry were not charged with malversation of any kind. His Lordship added, that he had a petition, in oppofition to that prefented by his honourable friend, from Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo, and others, burgeffes of Coventry. He read the prayer of the petition; which was, that the sheriffs might be punished for not making a return of members to ferve in Parliament for Coventry, &c. Mr. Fox withdrew his motion for the third refolution. The petition, mentioned by Lord Beauchamp, was brought up, and ordered to be taken into confideration at the fame time with the other petition relating to the fame fubject. A petition having been prefented to the Houfe, complaining of an undue election, and containing a charge of bribery and corruption against the fitting members for Stafford, Mr. Sheridan rofe and complained, that it was in the power of any petitioner to bring a charge of crimes and misdemeanors against any member of that Houfe with impunity, Where it is alledged that an election is undue on account of informalities or upon certain points of law or cuftoin, the character and feelings of the member against whom such a petition is brought receive no hurt; but the cafe is otherwife where an accufation is brought of bribery and corruption, crimes fo high in the eye of the laws and conftitution of this country. He therefore expreffed a wish that some gentlemen of greater experience in Parliament and confe quence than himself, would devise fome method of prevent ing frivolous and malicious petitions, and of punishing their authors fuitably to the nature of their offences. It was very hard that a gentleman fhould lie under the imputation of crimes of which he was innocent for a whole year, perhaps for a longer period. He obferved alfo, that under fuch circumftances every member, who had been fairly and independently elected, muft feel equally for the credit of his conftituents, from whom he derived his truft, and whofe character, as well as intereft, it was his duty to defend that it certainly was a moft serious hardship, that upon the accufation of a few of the lowest and most unprincipled voters in any borough, a numerous and refpectable body fhould remain traduced and ftigmatized in the eyes of that House for the space of a year, in a petition which fhould at last be proved a grofs and groundless libel. He therefore hoped that fome gentlemen of more experience than himself would turn their thoughts towards providing fome juft and adequate remedy to this evil, and fome exemplary penalties, whenever charges of fo grofs a nature are preferred on frivolous grounds, and with unfair purposes. [He was heard with particular attention, the House being uncommonly ftill while he was Speaking.] Mr. Rigby agreed with the honourable gentleman in the Mr. Rigby. juftnefs of his complaint. He afterwards, however, thought proper to attempt to ridicule the idea of any member's being concerned for the character of his conftituents, and to throw out fome infinuations against the burgeffes of Stafford. Mr. Fox obferved, that though thofe minifterial members, Mr. Fax. who chiefly robbed and plundered their conftituents, might afterwards affect to defpife them; yet gentlemen, who felt properly the nature of the truft allotted to them, would always treat them and speak of them with refpect. He then alluded to the late member for Stafford, Mr. W. and drew a comparison between him and his honourable friend S. not very much to the credit of the former, &c. &c. Mr. Rigby thought that all fuch matters were to be judged Mr. Rigby. of in the committees. It was very hard to lie under the fufpicion of fuch enormities as bribery and corruption. He pitied poor Stafford; but poor Stafford muft endure fufpicion, and even imputation, for a time! Mr. Fox fupported Mr. Sheridan, and at length the Mr. Fox. Speaker reminding the Houfe that there was no question before them, Right Honourable T. Townshend took this opportunity of Rt. Hon. 7. Town calling hand. calling the attention of the Houfe to a motion, which he had given notice of, a few days before, viz. that the thanks of that House be voted to their late speaker. It was not his intention, he faid, on the prefent occafion, to enter into a long argument, to fhew the ftrong, and effential reafons upon which he grounded the motion he was about to offer to the confideration of the Houfe; that tafk, he flattered himself, was altogether unneceffary; for if the Houfe could poffibly have forgotten the merits of the honourable gentleman who had for the two laft Parliaments filled the chair with fo much dignity, the euloges pronounced upon them, on the first day of the feffion, by the noble Lord and the right honourable gentleman who moved and feconded the propofition, "that the present speaker take the chair," had, he doubted not, fufficiently refreshed gentlemen's memories, and brought back to their recollection the impreffion which Sir Fletcher's conduct had made, not only on the Houfe in general, but on the minds of fome of its oldeft and moft experienced members. Mr. Townshend further faid, that though he did not think it indifpenfibly incumbent on him to ftate why he made the motion which he fhould offer, he felt it proper to say a word or two, as to the reafons on which he did not ground it. The first of these had relation to a particular paffage of a particular speech made by the late fpeaker at the bar of the House of Lords, when his Majefty was about to give his royal affent to a bill for the increase of the civil establishment. He begged leave to fay, in exprefs terms, that he did not move the thanks of the Houfe to Sir Fletcher Norton on account of that fpeech, and he thought it right to fay fo; at the same time he muft declare, that he was far from difapproving of that fpeech; he thought it a wife one, he thought it a well-timed addrefs, he confidered it as an incontrovertible proof of the late fpeaker's zeal and regard for the dignity of the Commons of England, and of his judgment and spirit in felecting a fit opportunity for fupporting that dignity. The House of Commons had themfelves adopted this opinion; they had thanked Sir Fletcher Norton for this fpeech, and by that means fealed their approbation of his conduct. It was for this reafon, because the House had already thanked the late fpeaker for that particular part of his conduct, that he did not now make it one of the grounds of his intended motion, and it was for this reafon only. There was other parts of Sir Fletcher Norton's conduct, while he filled the chair, which peculiarly entitled him to the highest honour a British British fubject could receive, the thanks of the Houfe of Commons; and thofe were, his great attention to the bufinefs of the House, both public and private, his civility and readiness to oblige every gentleman concerned in the latter, and the ftrict and unimpeachable impartiality with which he filled the chair during the period of much controverfy and much altercation. Above all, the House were obliged to the late speaker for the great affiftance he had given to the forwarding and carrying into effect, a bill, which the majority of the Houfe had always highly applauded, and which never had many, now he believed but very few, enemies; though among them there were men extremely able, extremely wife, and who doubtless founded their objections to the bill on laudable and liberal principles. That bill, however, of which the greatest part of the Houfe had always entertained the moft partial fentiments, and of which the falutary effects were now fufficiently proved, though certainly Mr. Grenville was entitled to the firft and largeft share of praise for framing it, was indebted for its efficacy in a great degree to Sir Fletcher Norton. Of what effential importance that bill was, all who had fat in the laft Parliament were well acquainted; and the young members might learn from the altercation that had paffed that day on election matters, how useful and how conducive to the prefervation of the freedom of election the bill was. From the fpirit of party that had fhewn itself in the converfation, which had taken place relative to the Coventry election, was there a gentleman present who did not believe, that were it not for Mr. Grenville's bill, and had the old method of trying election petitions, by the Houfe at large, continued in practice, but that a majority would have immediately declared Mr. Yeo and Mr. Holroyd duly returned members for Coventry. That reflection would convince gentlemen of the merits of the bill to which he was alluding, and that reflection would render it unneceffary for him to fay a word more upon that part of his fubject. With regard to the motion he should offer, he saw but one objection which appeared to him to be of the leaft weight, and that, a precedent upon the Journals did away. It might be objected, that being a new Parliament, the House could not take cognizance of the conduct of a speaker of preceding Parliaments, or vote him thanks for that conduct. Sir Fletcher Norton had been fpeaker nearly eleven years; his services therefore were not mere fervices of yesterday; and though moft certainly when a new Parliament was fumVOL. XVIII. P moned, moned, it was not to be fuppofed that the fpeaker of the old Parliament continued in his office as a matter of course, his merits, nevertheless, when acknowledged, were not to be paffed over in filence. The vote of thanks to Mr. Onflow, was a vote for thirty-three years fervices, a vote agreed to by many gentlemen who were not born at the commencement of the period during which Mr. Onflow had been chofen fpeaker. He, for one, fat in Parliament when that vote was moved, and he agreed to it, though he was among those who had not been born when Mr. Onflow was first introduced into the chair. The precedent, therefore, clearly fhewed that it was not uncuftomary for one Parliament to look back, and vote thanks to a fpeaker for conduct which he had adopted, and uniformly pursued before that Parliament had exiftence. As to the wording of the prefent motion, Mr. Townshend faid, he was free to own that he had laboured under inuch difficulty. Perfectly aware that unanimity was the matter moft to be defired, he had not eafily hit upon words which would ferve to drefs it up, fo as to render it perfectly acceptable to every palate; he might indeed have faved himself much trouble by adopting the language of the noble Lord and the right honourable gentleman, who moved and feconded the motion on the firft day of the feffion; no words could more exactly hit his fentiments of the late speaker's merit, than the words which both the noble Lord and the right honourable gentleman had ufed on that occafion; and when the House recollected, that they had held out to the present speaker the conduct of his predeceffor as the best model he could follow, and the fittest object of his imitation, if he was defirous of gaining a high character by his conduct in the chair, the Houfe would doubtlefs join with him in feeling the truth of this remark. It might, however, be thought unhandsome in him to take words out of other gentlemen's mouths. He might be charged with having acted in the character of a plagiary, a character which he had not the fmalleft inclination to challenge. After puzzling himself for fome time, he faid, he had recourfe to precedent, and there his difficulty was rather encreafed than diminished. Highly as he thought of Sir Fletcher Norton's merits, highly as he flattered himself, the conduct of the prefent fpeaker would entitle him to think of his merits hereafter, he could not offer to the late, or the prefent, fo infidious and fo infincere a compliment, as to place either of them on the fame level with Mr. Onflow. Mr. Onflow |