Sir Patrick O'Brien was mistaken in asserting that Mr. Duffy,
—now Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, the Speaker of the Victoria House of Commons,—had ever been subjected to this awful process of being " named " by the Speaker. What happened
was this. Mr. Duffy, in a discussion in Committee in 1853, referring to the means by which the support of Mr. Sadleir's
party had been recently acquired by Lord Aberdeen's Govern- ment, spoke of it as "corruption as gross as had ever been practised by the Walpoles or Pelhams." Mr. John Ball rose to order, and moved that the words be taken down, which was accordingly done. In the course of an animated discussion which followed, Lord Palmerston, in the name of the Government, defied Mr. Duffy to prove the truth of his charges. The Speaker having resumed the Chair, the words were reported to him, and he called upon the honotuable Member for New Ross to explain or retract, and then to with- draw from the House. Mr. Duffy, thereupon, repeated the in- criminated words, and declared his readiness to prove their truth before a Committee. He was ordered to appear in his place on the following day, and having again repeated his charge and his willingness to prove it, he withdrew. But on the following day, Lord John Russell thought it better, under all the circumstances, to drop the proceedings, and no apology was ever made by Mr Duffy, nor was he ever called to order by name.
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