Mr. Justice Best.—I beg to state, that, whatever passed in Parliament, cannot be questioned anywhere else. Whatever
the Speaker said in Parliament, he was justified in saying. But I have no means of knowing, nor have you, whether he ever did say so or not.
Mr. Cooper.—I am not questioning anything he said in the House of Commons—
Mr. Justice Best.—If Mr. Abbot had said it any where else, it would have been a libel on the constitution; if he said it there, we cannot enquire about it; it would be a breach of privilege.
Mr. Cooper.—Your Lordship asked me, how I came to know that he said so. My Lord, I have seen it in all the recorded speeches of the House of Commons in the published debates in Parliament, and—
Mr. Justice Best.—I say there are no recorded speeches of the House of Commons to which we can listen or attend.
Mr. Cooper.—Certainly, there are no records of speeches in the House of Commons in the sense in which the proceedings of courts of law are records, nor is there in that sense any recorded speech of Cicero or of Lord Chatham; but, my lord, will your lordship say, that I am not entitled in my address to the jury to use that which has been reported as part of a speech of Lord Chatham or of Cicero; because there are no records filed, as in the courts of law, of their speeches! I submit that they are matters of history; and that, as such, I am at liberty to use them.
Mr. Justice Best.—I tell you, Mr. Cooper, what the distinction is. If you publish, that, which may be said to be a speech of Lord Chatham’s, and it may be an accurate report of his speech, you may be guilty of publishing a libel, though the place, in which that speech was delivered gave a liberty to the speech. You know it has been so decided in my Lord Abingdon’s case, who published his own speeches.
Mr. Cooper.—That, my Lord, was a libel upon a private individual. I say—
Mr. Justice Best.—I say you have no knowledge of anything which is said in the Houses of Parliament.