HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Petitions having been presented, notices of motion given, and questions disposed of.
Mr. Roebuck rose to bring on the motion which he had placed on the book. He said he should be very short (A laugh). He could not express his loathing and contempt for the vulgar and brutal ribaldry which could find matter for a grin in a man's appearance. He should be temperate, as all the world knew he always was (Hear, hear), and should merely read to the House an extract from a document to which the Hon. Member for Sunderland had sworn, and which that Hon. Member had placed on record in a Court of Justice, in which Mr. Hudson—(Order) What was the use of the servile pedantry that adhered to rotten forms? (Order.) Well, in which the honourable—very honourable—right honourable—would that do?—Member swore that he had expended certain moneys, or used other means, in bribing and corrupting members of the legislature to favour railway schemes in which he was interested. Conceiving that a legislator who could bring such a charge against his fellows was utterly unfit to sit among them, he should—without the least personal feeling—move that Mr. George Hudson be expelled the House of Commons (Hear, hear).
Mr. Henry Drummond seconded the motion, but only for the purpose of saying that he perfectly believed every word to which Mr. Hudson had sworn (Hear, hear). He had last session given Lords and Commons, aye, and Ministers and Knights of the Garter too, his opinion of the extent to which corruption was carried in these days, and he reiterated his assertions. Still, though offences were to come, woe to them by whom they came, and therefore he should support Mr. Roebuck.
The Speaker having put the motion,
Lord John Russell, as leader of that House, said that he should make very few remarks on a very painful subject. He had carefully looked into Magna Charta, and also into the Bill of Rights, and was inclined to believe that neither made any provision for the case of a railway director who should endeavour to promote steam-traffic by unlawful means. So far they were in the dark. But it was desirable, nay, necessary, to consider rather the spirit of the constitution than its exact letter, and he thought that if the House would refer the matter to a Select Committee, they might attain their object. The instruction to that Committee would be to inquire, first, whether steam carriages were known in the days of King John, and if not, whether any portion of Magna Charta appeared to bear on the case. Next, he thought, the Committee might inquire whether, at the Revolution, steam travelling had been invented, and how far the Bill of Rights might have contemplated wrongful Railway Bills. On receiving the report the House would determine on its next step. (Hear.) He moved an amendment in accordance with his suggestion.
Mr. Disraeli was the last person to infuse into a question any element not patently consanguineous with it; but, with all deference to the noble Lord, he must respectfully inquire whether the noble Lord's suggestion did not tend to the implicit stultification of the House. Why, the noble Lord asked the Committee what he had already told them himself, and did not ask that which it was momentous to register; namely, whether in the chancery archives a damnatory record had been deposited. (Hear, hear.)
Colonel Sibthorp said that the noble Lord professed a great deal of virtue, which was all humbug. Facilis descensus Averni. He believed all Ministers to be knaves, especially when they most pretended to decency. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. He should leave the House (laughter); but before he went, he would just say that if the noble Lord, instead of wallowing in turtle and champagne (laughter), would introduce wise measures, he should be supported by wise men, himself amongst the rest. Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur.
Mr. G. H. Moore said that had Mr. Hudson been an Irish Member he would have been expelled long ago, but such was the beastly bitterness of England towards his, Mr. Moore's, unhappy countrymen that, as Mr. Hudson usually sat near the Irish Members, he was allowed to remain there in the hopes that he might contaminate the high and pure morality which they had learned from their beloved priests, and which shed a holy and blessed light around their path, to the utter discomfiture of the bigoted, blatant, and blasphemous Protestants.
Mr. Lucas confirmed Mr. Moore's statement as to the virtues of the Irish, and the wickedness of the English, and made an animated attack upon the Church of England, adding an affecting history of the persecutions to which Catholics were exposed in Protestant countries.