Lord Lareadovrne, in the House of Lords on Monday, moved
the appointment of the Select Committee to inquire into the charges against Lord Murray, and explained the delay that had taken place in selecting the members. While crediting Lord Crewe with "an attitude of dignified and imperturbable neutrality," Lord Lansdowne severely rebuked Mr. Mug- worth, Lord Murray's successor, for charging him (Lord Lansdowne) and those who supported him with hypocrisy and unctuous piety, in other words, with masking an unscru- pulous and relentless persecution of a political opponent under the profession of a search for purity. With regard to Lord Lorebtum, it was right to say that his acceptance was subject to the understanding that the charges against Lord Murray were specific and duly formulated ; that the inquiry should be limited to these charges and matters strictly relevant thereto; that the methods of the Committee should be as judicial as possible ; and that its investigations should be carried on in a wholly judicial spirit. They regretted that it should be necessary to institute this inquiry, but they desired to lift it out of the rut of party politics as much as possible, and the composition of the Committee was the best answer to the charge of partisanship and persecution. Lord Crewe, for the Government, said they still regarded the inquiry as un- necessary, but if the Committee was to be appointed they were agreed that it ought to be constituted as strongly and judici- ally as might be. He could not, however, endorse Lord Lansdowne's severe criticism of Mr. Illingworth's speech.
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