Page:The Annals of Our Time - Volume 1.djvu/79

JANUARY sories strangled, and all property found on board the ship confiscated. The space of a year and a half is granted within which if any bringing opium by mistake shall voluntarily deliver the same, he shall be absolved from all consequences of his crime."

15.—Hostile correspondence between Mr. Bradshaw, M.P. for Canterbury, and Mr. Horsman, M.P. for Cockermouth, arising out of a statement made by the latter to his constituents that the former "has the tongue of a traitor, but lacks the courage to become a rebel." (See October 31, 1839.) To-day, in replying to Colonel Gurwood, who acted for Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Horsman writes that this speech "was a public insult to his Sovereign—that Sovereign a lady, and the only lady in her dominions without those natural protectors who, in a more humble rank, would have secured her from being insulted with impunity. Under these circumstances, I conceive it to be the right and the duty of every loyal subject to come forward in her defence, and be as ready to guard her character as to protect her person; and as Mr. Bradshaw, on the most public occasion he could find, thought fit to assail her Majesty, in the most unmeasured terms, and for which he knew he could not be held accountable, he has little right to complain that I on another public occasion, with reference to his speech, used equally strong terms in repelling its disloyal aspersions." A "meeting" was therefore arranged, which took place at Wormwood Scrubbs. Shots were interchanged without effect. Mr. Bradshaw thereafter caused his second to ex- press regret for the language made use of, which he felt on reflection was unjust towards her Majesty.

16.—Parliament opened by the Queen in person. The first paragraph in the Royal Speech made reference to the impending marriage with Prince Albert, which it was hoped might be "conducive to the interests of my people, as well as to my own domestic happiness." Notice was then taken of the conclusion of the civil war in Spain, the continued disputes with Persia and China, the success of our arms in India, and that spirit of insubordination at home which had in some parts broken out into violence, but had been "speedily repressed by the firmness and energy of the magistrates, and by the steadiness and good conduct of my troops." In the debate on the Address, the Duke of Wellington insisted that it was necessary Prince Albert should be described as a Protestant, and Lord Melbourne utlimatelyultimately [sic] consented to the insertion of the word, though he thought it at the same time unnecessary, and even prejudicial. Everybody knew not only that he was a Protestant, but descended from the most Protestant family in Europe.—In the Commons the Address was agreed to without a division, and after a short debate, confined mainly to the negotiations between Lord Howard de Walden and the Portuguese Government as to the slave trade. Before the Royal Speech was read in the Lower House, Lord John Russell carried a motion relating to a breach of privilege, in so far as the Sheriffs of Middlesex had awarded damages against Messrs. Hansard.

17.—Stockdale, the printer, committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for contempt of the House and high breach of privilege in raising a second action against Messrs. Hansard. (See Nov. 12, 1839.) Mr. Pemberton delivered an elaborate speech to prove that the House was taking a most injudicious and unprecedented course on the question of privilege. They should not only attack sub- ordinates, but Lord Chief Justice Denman; who, if summoned, would reply as Holt did on the Bombay case, that when summoned in due course of law to explain his judgment, he would do so, but not otherwise. Lord John Russell's motion for committal was carried by 239 to 135.

20.—Rev. Sydney Smith writes to the Times. "As my friend, Lord John Russell, having destroyed the Bishops, is now busy sending the Judges to gaol, I shall be obliged to you to insert the following protest against his demolition of Deans and Chapters, which, I understand, is to be brought on as soon as the Queen's Bench is safe in the Poultry Compter." The protest was embodied in nineteen objections. A petition from the reverend Canon was presented to the House of Lords during the session by the Bishop of Rochester.

—Debate in the Commons on the Privilege Question. Lord John Russell's motion, that the prosecution in the case of Stockdale was "in contempt" of the privileges of the House, was met by an amendment from Mr. F. Kelly, proposing that Messrs. Hansard be indemnified against all costs and actions sustained by them.—Sir Robert Peel supported the Ministry, contending that whatever privilege was necessary for the proper and effectual discharge of its functions the House of Commons possessed; that the particular privilege of free publication not liable to be questioned by a court of law was absolutely necessary; and that there was no security for the proper and effectual discharge of that privilege unless they were enabled by their own declared power to vindicate it. Lord John Russell's motion was carried by 205 to 90 votes.—Next day Mr. Fitzroy Kelly presented a petition from the Sheriffs of London, expressive of their sorrow at having incurred the displeasure of the House of Commons in Stockdale's case, and stating that they had acted in the belief that it was their duty to their sovereign and the Court of Queen's Bench, whose sworn servants they were. The House resolved, by a majority of 101, that they had been guilty of a breach of privilege, and should be committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms.

—Bill for the naturalization of Prince Albert passes through all its stages in the House of Rh