SELECT COMMITTEE ON ELECTION PROCEEDINGS. SIR ROBERT INGLIS, C01011e1 SIBTHORP,
MT. WAKLET, and the like, object that the Committee for inquiring into Compromises of Election Petitions is an "inquisition." The objection comes oddly from the last-mentioned gentleman—the great holder of inquests, 1. e. Inquisitor-General, for the County of Middlesex : but let that pass. Of courselt is meant to be understood that the victims of this modern Inquisition are like . those .of the -old one, martyrs for conscience-sake.
Mr. WALTER and Mr. BAILLIE Coca-Rims arettypes of the con- sciences of modern Members of Parliament. ',Mr. WALTER'S con- science will not allow him to give evidence befOre any Committee of which Mr. ROEBUCK is Chairman. Mr. WALTER is not "re- luctant to lay before a Committee nominated- by the House the fullest explanation in his power of all the transactions in which he was personally concerned in the late election for Nottingham " ; on the contrary, it would "pain him excessively" to besprevented. But Mr. ROEBUCK is in the chair of the Committee ; and Mr. WALTER'S principles will not admit of his saying a word on the subject before him, except upon compulsion and under protest. It is a somewhat peculiar, and, we must be permitted to say, rather crotchety conscience this of Mr. WALTER. For that gentleman, however, there is great allowance to be made, considering the very questionable taste of the manner in which Mr. ROEBUCK on one occasion dragged his name into discus- sion. For Colonel SIBTHORP also allowance is always made. But Sir ROBERT Nous and Mr. WAKLEY are men of greater logical pretension, and they have not Mr. WALTER'S excuse. Both of these gentlemen know that no penalties can be attached to any witness for evidence given before the Committee in question— indeed, that its investigations are preliminary, not to a judicial sen- tence, but to a legislative provision. They know that its inquiries are directed to elicit general facts, not personal crimination ; and even though Mr. RoEnneR were capable of perverting the inquiry by indirect methods to the latter purpose, they know that there are eight English gentlemen associated with him, who through regard to their own characters dare not allow him to do so. They say, Mr. ROEBUCK, being the accuser, ought not to be allowed to act as judge. If there be any thing in this plea, it tells equally against every committee of inquiry that has at any time been appointed by the House of Commons. But it is empty verbiage : Mr. ROE- BUCK, as Chairman of the Committee, is not judge ; he is merely the public prosecutor, who, having opened his case, has been ap- pointed to examine the witnesses and to sum up. The House of Commons, to which the Committee's report will be made, is the judge. Lastly, these gentlemen know that the language used by Mr. ROEBUCK with regard to Mr. WALTER, although certainly ob- jectionable, does not necessarily imply active enduring hostility to Mr. WALTER. It was nothing more than an intemperate expres- sion of Mr. ROEBUCK'S views of the conduct of a part of the poli- tical press.
These are considerations which Mr. WALTER might naturally enough disregard in the excited state of his feelings, but which third parties are not entitled to overlook. Those gentlemen, there- fore, who in the House of Commons echoed Mr. WALTER'S allega- tions, expose themselves to the alternative suspicion .of seeking to discredit the Committee beforehand, in order to frustrate its at- tempts to improve legislation for the prevention of corrupt prac- tices at elections, or of seeking to gratify some latent personal grudge against Mr. ROEBUCK. Appearances are in favour of the latter inference : the line of argument adopted by.Mr.,WALTER's backers looks very much like the colouring of .at dead-set at Mr. ROEBUCK. Possibly Mr. WAKLEY cannot pardon the Member for Bath's logical superiority in the debate on the Poor-law ; and the Member for Oxford University may be still haunted by an envious recollection of the impressive manner in which Mr. Roninek once read some Scripture texts to the House.
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