The newspapers contain a correspondence between Lord Ashley and Mr.
Pease relative to the absence of the latter gentleman from the House of Commons on the occasion of "counting out" the House when Lord Ashley's motion respecting labour in factories was to have been brought forward. Mr. Pease, in explanation, says-
" Now, as I was in the House at the moment the motion was made for count- ing it, allow me to explain, that more than two weeks previously, I had paired with my friend Matthew Bell, E.q., M. P., for that day. At four o'clock our pair began. 1Ve both left town that night. On packing my papers, I hastened to the House to intrust two petitions to Sir Charles Style, and was moving to the door when Gillon's motion was made. I resumed my scat; as I never was, rot will be, a party to counting out the House. I remembered to remain was equivalent to a vote, and on the ground of doing honour to my pair, I left the those: within an hour I was at the railway station, en route for Birmings ham. I heard Stewart say, ' This is too bad ;" and here mots my knowledge.',
To this Lord Ashley replies_ "Pairs take place only when the House is divided. Were it otherwise, no one having paired could venture to be present in the House during the transac- tion of any business whatever. That this is your own view of the principle of pairs, I must infer from the fact that you were present, and coneuned in various votes which were put by the Speaker, and passed between the time the House met and the moment at which the proposition was made that the nutn- ben should be counted. As no division took place, you did not think it neces- eery to withdraw into the Lobby."
Mr. Pease's rejoinder—
"My own opinion that I acted in the only correct way in retiring from the House on the night in question, is confirmed to me by every gentleman I have named the subject to, and these have not been few. That any business what- ever had been transacted prior to my leaving the House, was quite unknown to me: so soon as my interview with my friend Sir Charles Style was over, I rose to withdraw."
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