MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS.-10. Death by Accidents Com- female servant committed likewise to prison

jasper, James Jarvis, Le had communi-been inferred from what was said on a eated with the Poor Law Commissioners, former day, as well as this evening, that Sir and they had resolved to institute an in-C. Taylor was one of the convicting maquiry; but it was a question whether it ought to be a public or a private one.

gistrates. The fact was not so: the convieting magistrates were Captain Lyon and Mr. Marden. Sir C. Taylor did not adjudicate, although he was present. Hale, the policeman, also positively denied the truth of the assertion, that he had had any conversation with Silvester about laving

SILVESTER'S CASE-THE GAME LAWS. MR. COLLETT begged to repeat his question regarding a statement which had appeared in the Hampshire Independent of May 9, in which a policeman was repre-a trap for anybody. He (Sir J. Gralam) sented to have offered a bribe to a man was always reluctant to question the chanamed Silvester, to lay a false information racter of a person not willingly brought under the game laws against a fisherman, before the House, by the discretion, or pernamed Bridger. [The hon. Gentleman read haps in some cases indiscretion, of hon. the statement at length.] The disgusting Members; but he was bound to state as a case had excited considerable sensation in fact capable of proof that Silvester was a the district; and well it might be called convicted felon, having been found guiity a disgusting case. His complaint was of horse-stealing. Yet he was the person against a magistrate, a minister of the law, upon whose statement reliance was to be and against a policeman for offering blood placed, and upon whose evidence an atmoney. The first attempt having failed, a tack had been made upon the characters more pliable agent was found; and that of Sir C. Taylor and Hale the policeman. agent went to the house of a poor fisher- It now appeared that the hon. Member man named Frederick Bridger, and in the had changed his ground, and shifted his absence of the man sold the game to the issue to the case of Mrs. Bridger, who, it wife. For this offence she was dragged was alleged, had been entrapped into the before the bench, and sentenced by Sir purchase of a hare and a pheasant. Into Charles Taylor to hard labour and impri- this matter he (Sir James Graham) had sonment. The charge was, that she had yet had no opportunity of inquiring; but it bought game of a person not authorized to seemed to rest upon what the hon. Memsell it; but how was the poor woman to ber called affidavits, probably extra-judicial, know whether the person who offered the and not of a legal character. The characgame was or was not licensed? The wo-ter of a magistrate had been assailed, and man bought it not to sell again, but for consumption in her family: her child was ill, and it was a common opinion in that part of the country that the brains of a hare would cure the disorder; and certain it was that the child got better. The hon. Member, after referring to a variety of documents, concluded by asking whether Hale was still in the police force, and Sir C. Taylor in the commission of the peace for Hampshire?

SIB J. GRAHAM reminded the House that when the question was formerly put to him, it related to an endeavour on the part of Hale, the policeman, to seduce Silvester to lay a trap, by inducing some person to purchase game. He (Sir James Graham) had, therefore, asked Sir Charles Taylor if there was any truth in the story; and by him he had been assured that it was utterly destitute of foundation. He had then called upon the magistrates who held the petty session at which the conviction took place to make their statement, and to accompany it by the evidence taken before them in the case. It would have

inquiries had been made to rebut the attack; and when it was supposed that that would be the question, another case, relating to different parties, appeared to have been got up. The case now brought forward by the hon. Member, he had yet had no opportunity of investigating; but he hoped the hon. Member would permit him to have copies of his affidavits, in order that, if no plan were found as to their regularity, and it turned out that the statements in them were false, the parties might be prosecuted and punished for perjury. [Mr. COLLETT: My question on a former day related to this case; and I call for an answer to it.] The question of the hon. Member related to an account in a provincial paper which he had read to the House, and which mentioned only that Hale, the policeman, had made a corrupt offer to Silvester. The reading of this account the hon. Member had followed up by his questions, the same as those put tonight, whether Hale was still in the police force, and Sir C. Taylor still in the commission of the peace? To those points he

(Sir J. Graham) had addressed himself, | poor innocent woman was sent to gaol for and had furnished himself with an answer, a month, and there she would now have considering the subject narrowed to the been but for the kindness of the hon. Memstatements as regarded Hale and Sir C. ber for Athlone, who had sent down the Taylor. If there were any other instance fine and obtained her release. It had been of an attempt to trap an innocent person said that Silvester was not a respectable into the commission of an offence, it was man: perhaps so, but many who sold game new to him; but from long acquaintance were probably not more respectable. Alwith Sir C. Taylor, he had such confidence though it might turn out that the case was in his honour, that he was certain, as re- not true in all its parts, the hon. Member lated to him, it had no foundation. He had for Athlone deserved credit for having felt so as regarded Hale and Silvester, brought it forward. Nobody knew better and the same strong persuasion existed in than the right hon. Secretary for the Home his mind as regarded any other accusation Department the gross misconduct of magisof a similar kind subsequently made. He trates in cases connected with the game repeated that he should be happy to be laws, and he (Mr. Bright) hoped that out furnished with the honourable Member's of repeated instances of the kind would affidavits, in order that if they were not grow some measure to correct the abuse. sustained by facts the parties might be prosecuted, and the charge be refuted in the most satisfactory manner.

MR. COLLETT repeated that Silvester having declined the job, Hale procured somebody else to tempt Mrs. Bridger to purchase the game. It seemed to him part of the same transaction.

MR. LEADER thought the hon. Member had wandered from the question, which was whether Sir C. Taylor was guilty of what, if true, must be considered as an infamous act. Now, charges like that brought forward could not but inflict pain on those who were the subject of them. Sir C. Taylor was an old gentleman, nearly eighty years of age, and had been brought before the public by the hon. Member as having been guilty of an act which could not be considered otherwise than as highly disgraceful. He thought it was really too bad. He knew Sir C. Taylor, who spent the income of his estate in providing labour for his poorer neighbours, and in acts of charity, and was utterly incapable of anything like what the hon. Member for Athlone had attributed to him.

MR. BRIGHT admired the very natural sympathy displayed by most hon. Members whenever a charge was made against a magistrate. Such was the fact, and he believed that no Member would venture to deny it. Whether Silvester's story were true or not, the hon. Member for Athlone (Mr. Collett) had done good service by calling attention to it, because the statement had appeared uncontradicted in a widely circulated paper. Sir C. Taylor had taken no steps to contradict the re- MR. P. SCROPE had also the pleasure port; and it purported to be a correct ac- of being acquainted with Sir C. Taylor. count of what had passed in the justice-He must say that he believed that great room. There was no doubt that Mrs. Bridger had been trapped into the purchase of the game, and no doubt that she had been convicted when Sir C. Taylor was present, though perhaps not on the bench. [Sir J. GRAHAM: The conviction was signed by Captain Lyon and Mr. Marden.] Sir C. Taylor was present at the time, and the whole circumstances seemed suspicious. The poor woman was sent to Winchester gaol for a month for buying game of an unlicensed person; but how was she to ascertain whether the person had or had not authority to sell game? There was hardly a Member of Parliament who, a few years ago, did not buy as much game as he wanted of salesmen who were not allowed to have it in their possession. The fact was in evidence before Committees of both Houses. The

injustice had been done him on the present occasion. He agreed with the right hon. Baronet that the hon. Member for Athlone had departed from the question of which he had given notice, and had gone into a number of statements which it was impossible for any hon. Member to follow. With regard to Silvester, he knew that he had been convicted of horse-stealing, and he also knew that Hales was a most meritorious and excellent officer of the Hampshire force. Sir C. Taylor had been for thirtyfour years a Member of that House, and for fifty years a magistrate, and the present was the first charge which had ever been brought against him-brought against him, too, on the evidence of a convicted horse-stealer.

MR. SPEAKER called the hon. Member to order.

There was no question before the House, | House. This clergyman has long been in and the subject was dropped. the habit of writing such letters; for, unhappily, with many virtues, they are counterbalanced by a miserable love of notoriety, which brings him constantly forward in a very unfavourable light; so much so, that the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Home Department termed him "the popularity-hunting parson." He is on the right hon. Baronet's side now, and I do not know if the right hon. Baronet would

BREACH OF PRIVILEGE. MR. BANKES said: Sir, I rise for the purpose of mentioning a circumstance which I should have desired to bring forward at an earlier period, had it not been that I wished to avoid the accusation of attempting to interpose unnecessary delay in respect to the passing of the Corn Bill. For this reason alone I have delayed refer-repeat the epithet. I do not adopt it, howring to a publication in one of the morning ever; I only mention it to show that this papers, which appears to me a direct viola- gentleman has been in the habit of thus tion of the privileges of the House. Sir, I adopting a course so unworthy of his am not at all desirous of being more critical character, and so little calculated to be than any other Members with respect to beneficial to the cause he has at heart. I remarks on their speeches or votes. But now mention the subject with no view of I think that there is a considerable differ- proposing that he should be called to our ence between these general observations on bar, but in the hope that what falls here our public conduct or opinions, and per- from me may, perhaps, meet the eye of his sonal attacks on the character of individual diocesan, the proper authority on all such Members, such as are contained in a letter points respecting the conduct of a clergyto which a signature is attached-the sig-man within his jurisdiction, and who may nature of a person of station and character. kindly state to this gentleman that no good I advert to the letter of a clergyman which is done by taking such a course. It is in appeared the other day (I think Friday this view alone that I mention the subject last) in the Times. It may be remem- at present; but, undoubtedly, if I again bered that in the late debate, the noble observe that this course is pursued by him, Lord the Chief Secretary for Ireland, in in defiance of this House, I will move that reply to a question of mine-that question he appear at our bar; because I do not being as to the present state of Ireland- think that we ought to exert the authority threw out a taunt against me as to the of this House against such as are of infecondition of the labouring population in rior station, and allow offences so serious Dorsetshire, to which I was not then com- to pass with impunity when committed by petent (I having already spoken) to reply; those of rank and education-who ought to and on that account, one of the Members know, and who do know, what is the profor that county felt bound to make a state- per course to adopt; and this very gentlement, in which I am not aware that any man, indeed, showed that he was aware material inaccuracy occurred. But a cler- of what course he should take, for he adgyman of Dorsetshire thought fit to make dressed to the hon. Member for Shaftesthis speech the text of a letter addressed bury an explanatory letter fit to be read; to the editor of a newspaper-a letter which, and yet, after thus evincing that he knew apart from the reverend gentleman's pri- what was the proper way to effect his obvate character, I must confess I think was ject, he strangely adopted so improper a not worthy of him, and was not inspired course as I have stated. I am sorry not by feelings which ought to influence those to see the noble Lord the Secretary for in his sacred office. It is scarcely neces- Ireland in his place-still more sorry, as I sary for me to read any part of that letter. hear his absence is on account of indispoIt would be painful for me to do so. This sition-for which reason, I can no further is not a solitary instance of that kind of answer the taunt with which he recently conduct by this gentleman. He has been replied to me than by saying, that the quespleased to make similar comments upon me tion I put to him he did not answer, nor for a considerable period, which I have any of his Colleagues. That question was, always regarded with contempt. But when "How is this Corn Law measure to benefit a young Member, speaking for the first the people of Ireland, either now or at any time in this House, is assailed by such a future period?" As to that, he only anletter, publicly reflecting upon his charac-swered by saying, that the condition of the ter, it assumes a more serious aspect, and Dorsetshire labourers was as bad as that of is a decided breach of the privileges of this the peasantry in Ireland. Then, I say, that

people of Lancashire. He might have said further, that although the condition of the Dorsetshire might not be worse than that of the Wiltshire labourer, yet were he to state that it was not worse than that of the labourers in the majority of English counties, he would be making a statement very far from the truth. He believed, however, that great benefit had arisen to Dorsetshire from the exposition which had been made of the condition of the labourers on the hon. Gentleman's own property.

MR. HUME said, that the hon. Member opposite rose to complain of a breach of the privileges of the House. Now he wanted to know what the document constituting this alleged breach was, and who the indi

makes my question only wider; and I ask, "how will your measure benefit the people either of Ireland or of Dorsetshire?" To that you have given no answer. I feel your taunt, it is true, though not so deeply as you think, because I know it is unfounded; but I adopt the taunt for the argument, and ask, how will your measure make the peasantry better in the one country or the other? To that question, I repeat, you have ventured to attempt no answer. Sir, I wholly deny that their condition in Dorsetshire is such as has been stated. [Mr. BRIGHT: Hear, hear!] And as I hear the cheer of the hon. Member for Durham, I will remind him of what I heard him admit on one occasion (not confidentially)—“ that it was owing to Lord Ash-vidual was who wrote it? When a case of ley that the attacks had been made on Dorsetshire; that the condition of the peasantry was not worse, it was well known, in that than other counties; but that as Lord Ashley attacked the manufacturers, they attacked him." These are my answers to those taunts. I feel them to be unfounded and unjust. I never will say that the wages in Dorsetshire are what I should wish them to be; but I will tell you what is the effect of the constant understatement of the rate of wages therethat those who see such statements of wages, lower than they are in the habit of giving, of course conceive that they are behaving handsomely. Thus, the course adopted certainly produces no good for the peasantry who are professedly the objects

of so much solicitude.

MR. BRIGHT remarked that the hon. Gentleman had begun with talking of a breach of privilege, and ended by stating to the House the substance of a private conversation between them, of which he must say that he had no recollection. He had, in fact, had many conversations with the hon. Gentleman since he became a Member of that House, and he had not anticipated that the substance of of any them would have been made the subject of a speech by the hon. Gentleman, especially when no notice had been given to him upon the subject. This much, however, he would admit. If he had not stated to the hon. Member what it was alleged he had said, he had certainly used, at all events, similar expressions in conversation with others he had said that one reason why the attention of persons in Lancashire had been directed towards Dorsetshire was, because the noble Lord the late Member had made himself so busy as to the working

this kind was brought before the House they ought to be informed what the document was, where it appeared, and, indeed, placed iu full possession of it.

MR. BANKES said, that it gave him pain to read the attack, neither should he wish to name the rev. gentleman its author. After some hesitation the hon. Gentleman proceed to read the letter. The writer stated (referring to Mr. Floyer) that the hon. Gentleman was one

"Whose words ought not to be too severely criticised; for from the low sum at which he is that there are hired, one is bound to presume some peculiar circumstances connected with him that he is not thoroughly up to his work, or something of that kind."""

The hon. Member continued: If they wanted more, let them take this passage:

their own uncertain tenure of their farms, their I have found the tenantry laying the blame on heavy burdens, and heavy rents. The owners I generally find inclined to lay the blame on the grasping disposition of the tenantry, surplus population, and therefore overstocked labour market. The labourers themselves, to use their own phrase, say,The one shoots the bullets, the other casts,' which, translated, means that both alike do their best to screw them down to the lowest possible hire. It is not for me to say who is the culprit— I know the crime cries out aloud for justice-who did it I really cannot say; but I am inclined, if the farmer is accused, to regard the indictment of the landlord as an accessory after the fact' as only just."

He did think the first part of these extracts a direct breach of privilege; but he was, of course, entitled to use his own discretion as to following it up.

MR. CHRISTIE was sure that the rev. gentleman alluded to would have no objection to have his name mentioned. He was a gentleman well known, and he believed much respected by all who knew him for his great benevolence. Of course it was