when the disclosure was made, he knew nothing of the conduct of those persons. For two parliaments he had had the honor of filling the situation of chairman in that house. It was a situation of great labor, and not of that high dignity to which gentlemen were now disposed to raise it. It required great and laborious exertion. He had endeavored, to the utmost of his power, to perform his duty, and to perform it with zeal and impartiality. During those two parliaments he had never absented himself from the performance of his duties. He had attended in his place early and late; he believed he had acquired the confidence of the house by his assiduity; and he could most sincerely and conscientiously state, that he had never, at any time, done aught to destroy that confidence. He thanked the house for the attention that had been paid to him; and he felt perfectly convinced, that if his conduct were brought before it, he could effectually clear his character from every imputation. He was placed in a most peculiar situation; but he would not act like some of those who preferred complaints he would not inculpate persons who were absent-he would not attack men who could not defend themselves. He hoped some opportunity would be afforded, where witnesses might be examined, and those who brought charges might be fairly confronted with the accused. He trusted that that justice which was due to every person, of every degree, in this country, would not be refused to individuals against whom many attempts had been made to excite public prejudice, but that their defence would be heard before they were condemned. His conduct, he repeated, had been investigated and approved by the most competent tribunals-first, by a committee; and next, by the whole body of proprietors. That some most nefarious transactions had taken place, he admitted, but he was not privy to them. He had been acquitted by the unanimous votes of the committee, and by nearly the unanimous votes of four or five general meetings of the Arigna Company; and, finally, instead of being condemned, he had been absolutely placed in the chair of that company.

Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN begged to assure the hon. member that the words attributed to him were not used, neither did he (Alderman Waithman) mean to allude particularly to those transactions to which the hon. member had referred." He only meant to say, that various transactions had taken place, with respect to different companies with which the hon. member was connected, that, in his opinion, called for the animadversion of that house and if he could vindicate himself from them, no man would rejoice more sincerely than he would do. He had known the hon. member, though not intimately, for several years, and in making

those observations he certainly was not actuated by any thing like personal hostility towards him.

Mr. BROGDEN said, he was conscious that the words which he quoted from the papers were not true. They were, however, attributed to the worthy alderman, and he therefore felt it necessary to notice them.

Sir J. YORKE said, he believed that such a debate had never before arisen on the question of voting an address, in answer to a king's speech. As, however, he had been alluded to by the hon. member (Mr. Brogden), he felt it necessary to say a word in explanation. When he heard, on a former evening, the right hon. the Speaker described as possessing all the cardinal virtues,—as having as many virtues as there were points of the compass,surely it was not strange for him to express a wish that the other officers of the house should manifest equal purity and integrity. The plain charge brought against the hon. gentleman was thisthat he, as a director of the Arigna Company, purchased from a man, named Flattery (a very flattering name), certain mines, full of iron and coal-with which valuable commodities Ireland was to be supplied-for the sum of 10,000/., while the company was charged 25,000l., by which means 15,000l. were pocketed amongst a few individuals; that of this sum the hon. member received 10477.; that, being asked to refund it, he refused, and actually kept it at the present moment.

Mr. BROGDEN admitted that certain members of the company did act as the gallant officer had stated. Undoubtedly an agreement was entered into that 25,000l. should be charged to the company as the price of those works, for which only 10,000/. had been paid. Of that circumstance he, however, was wholly ignorant. He was first requested to belong to that company in September, 1824, when he was himself connected with a mineral property of his own in Wales. He went down to his small place there; and while in that country, he received a letter from Lon-' don relative to the new company. He desired to have nothing to do with it; but as reference was given to a person who was competent to give a character of the property, and as he was informed that that person was in the neighbourhood, he applied to him on the subject. That individual gave to him such a flattering account of the project, that he was induced, in an evil moment, to change his mind. He opened the letter which he had written declining the offer, and returned a different answer. This was in the month of September, and he heard no more of the matter till the January following, when he learned that he had been elected a director. He then found that 25,000l. had been stated before

a meeting, as having been paid for the property, and he saw the bond or instrument, with a regular stamp, for 25,000l. It was, therefore, utterly impossible for him to suspect any such transaction, as that which had really taken place; and the very day, the very moment, it was developed (and it was only done when Mr. Flattery threatened to impeach the conduct of others) he, as he had before took the liberty of stating, called a meeting of the directors, and required of them to state the true nature of the case. This they refused; and he, on the same day, went to other proprietors, and stated all that he had done. Mr. Bent also declared what had occurred. This took place in the month of July, and not till then was a discovery made of the proceeding which occurred in the preceding October. He was originally asked to take 100 shares; and full of the conviction that the speculation was a good one, he requested a second hundred. These were granted; and he fully believed that the sui paid to him arose from those 100 shares, and was not abstracted from the money fraudulently procured. He had absolved himself from any knowledge of the transaction. never suspected it-he never could have suspected it. He called on the proprietors to hold a general meeting at the London Tavern, and he was there publicly exculpated. In the Court of Chancery he had sworn to the truth of this statement; and those who instituted the suit had not dared to say that it was not true. They had not dared to assert that he was privy to the abstraction of this 15,000, or that he was, in the most remote degree, connected with it.

He

Friday, Nov. 24, 1826.

On the question that the Speaker do now leave the chair,

Mr. BROGDEN addressed the house, and said, that he had now had the honor of filling the important and honorable situation of chairman of the committees of the house for nearly two whole Parliaments; and he was not conscious of having done any act during that period which was either dishonorable in itself or derogatory from the situation which he filled in that house and in society at large. Within the few last months he had been assailed by public and private calumnies the most unjustifiable and unfounded, He had rebutted those calumnies as far as was in his power; but they were still circulated to his disadvantage, in consequence of the prejudices which had been excited against him. He was happy, however, in having it in his power to say, that from those who knew him best, he had received, not blame, but thanks-he had met, not with accusation, but applause; whilst on the other hand he was

sorry to say, that among the public at large his character had been torn from him by anonymous publications of the most scandalous and virulent description. He would venture to affirm that there was no gentleman on either side of the house, let his politics be what they might, who had investigated the merits of his case, and possessed sufficient knowledge of it to decide on the accusations which had been preferred against him. In such a condition, though he felt himself perfectly guiltless, he could not think of presenting himself as a candidate for the office which he had filled in the two last Parliaments, until he had removed the calumnies which had been propagated against him. He was sure that the house would do him justice when an inquiry into them was instituted, and that it would, in the mean time, appreciate the motives which induced him to act as he then acted. All that he would say further was, that he was guiltless of all fraud, and that he wished the transaction alluded to by the honorable alderman who had brought it before the house to be fully investigated. At present he bowed before the storm which had been excited against him; but he was convinced that fair weather would soon return, and that his character would shine with undiminished brightness in spite of the clouds which now obscured it. He would not trespass further on the attention of the house-on previous occasions he had often received its indulgence-all that he now asked for was its justice. In conclusion he challenged the worthy alderman who had been the first to assail his character, to give him a speedy opportunity of vindicating it from the charges which he had brought against it.

Mr. CANNING said that he was sure that only one impression could have been generated in the house by the address which the hon. gentleman who had just sat down had delivered to it,-an address which was as creditable to that hon. gent.'s sense of what was due to himself, as it was consonant to the honor of the house, and to the feelings of those whose duty it was to suggest a fit person to fill the chair of the committees. For his own part, he felt that the house, although it might avail itself of the hon. member's resolution to withdraw himself at present from the chair, which he had filled with so much credit to himself and advantage to the public, and he could assure it, that he did not intend to propose the hon. gentleman for its chairman, after what he had just said, -he felt, he repeated, that the house, if the hon. gentleman came from the inquiry, which he had challenged, free from all moral taint, would be sorry to make any arrangement which would preclude him from again filling that situation, which he had already dignified by his industry and talents. At the same time he (Mr. Canning) must observe, that if it had been possible, if it had been either respectful to the house or kind to the individual, to press him against his own disclaimer, he should have been reluctant to

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place him (Mr. Brogden) at present in the chair, because he felt that a thousand opportunities during the ordinary business of liament might arise, in which the vague rumors, which had necessarily reached the ears of every member in the house, might prove impediments to the progress of business, and matter of unpleasantness to the hon. member himself. The course which the hon. member had taken was, in his opinion, eminently manly, wise, and honorable. He was confident that the hon. alderman who had menaced that hon. member-and he did not use the word "menaced" in an offensive sense-perhaps he ought rather to have said, who had given that hon. member notice of his intention to oppose his re-election to the office of chairman of the committees of the house, would feel himself bound to give him as early as possible the opportunity which he sought to exculpate his character. Until that exculpation was complete, he should not deem it respectful to the house, or indeed consistent with his own character, to propose to place the hon. member in that situation, which he could not fill to the public advantage, unless he took it free from all moral taint. When the proper opportunity arrived, he should propose as chairman, pro tempore, another gentleman, who had long been a member of the house, who was conversant with its forms and modes of transacting business, and whom he could venture to recommend to their notice as a man of unblemished honor. He would also say this of that gentleman, that though the chairmanship of their committees would be to him, as it must be to every member, an object of honorable and praise-worthy ambition, he would be more happy in restoring it to its ancient possessor, free from all reproach, than he would be in holding it himself, whilst that gentleman was laboring, unjustly, under the obloquy and indignation of the public.

Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN said that he felt himself in as painful a situation--indeed he might say, in a more painful situation— than he had ever before felt in addressing a public assembly. He wished it to be distinctly understood by the house that he did not cômé forward as the accuser of the hon. gent. With regard to the transactions which he (Mr. Waithman) had brought before it, and which the hon. member had acknowledged to be fraudulent, he (Mr. Brogden) said that he knew nothing. He gave the hon. member credit for that assertion; and he now informed the house, that it was not on that ground alone that he opposed the re-election of the hon. member to the situation of chairman of the committees of the house. He had seen so much of the gambling speculations which had recently disgraced and exhausted the country, he knew so much of the manner in which they were concocted and subsequently managed, that he considered it derogatory from the honor of the house to have any man connected with so many of them, as