Sir Edward Codrington made a complaint in the House of
Commons, on Monday, against the Spectator. He complained of a misrepresen- tation of his remarks on Lord Brougham's speech- " The mistake bad appeared in the 'Spectator newspaper; which made him state, in reference to what had been said by a noble and learned lord respecting bead-money for captured negroes, How did he dare to utter in the House of Lords such 'falsehoods?' Now, he had never said one word of the kind. He believed that no such language was imputed to him in any of the daily newspapers: therefore it was most improper on the part of this weekly news. paper making so gross a misrepresentation. He did not intend to make a formal complaint on the subject, but he felt bound to call the attention of the Home to the matter."—(Morning Chronicle Report.) The passage to which Sir Edward referred formed part of the Post- script in last week's Spectator; and was as follows- " A considerable portion of the time of both Houses last night was wasted in personalities. Lord Brougham complained of a misrepresentation of his
Slavery speech by Captain Pechell and Sir Edward Codrington in the House
of Commons. Sir Edward Codrington, referring to his remarks about head. money, had said, ' How did he dare to utter in the House of Lords such false
hoods?' Lord Brougham, with a vehemence of tone and language unusual
even for him, protested against the studied and wilful misrepresentation of bil meaning : it was perfectly evident from the reports of his speech, that he had carefully avoided imputation on the conduct of British officers, and had merely attacked the system of rewarding the capture of slave vessels by head.mooey, as having the tendency to make officers wait till a vessel was full of slaves before they seized it ; and he read passages from his speech in confirmation of this statement."
From the above it appears, that the words which Sir Edward Cod- rington repudiates, were not given in part of his speech, but of Lord Brougham's ; and they were quoted verbatim from the report in the Chronicle of Lord Brougham's speech on Friday- " A gallant officer is reported in this day's paper—in the one at least which I have read—to have said en reference to a speech of mine, made in this House
on the '30th of February last—the gallant officer is reported to have said, addressing the chair in the other House of Parliament, and in speaking, of course, within the hearing of the chairman, that a noble and learned person
had very grossly misrepresented the conduct of the Navy ; and then the pliant officer is reported to have burst forth with the exclamation, How did he dare to utter in the House of Lords such falsehoods ? ' " We supposed that the " gallant officer" was Sir Edward Codrington; but on reference to the Morning Post we find the words " How did be dare" &c. given to Captain Pechell. The Chronicle says that Cap- tain Pechell did not use the word falsehood ; and neither in the I wee nor Chronicle report are the words as quoted by Lord Brougham. This explanation of the whole matter ought to satisfy Sir Edward Codringtoa that there was no intentional misrepresentation of his speech by us.
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