Mr. Boothby will have to tread with singular care if
he is to make anything of a success in the defence he proposes to put up in the House of Commons. The House cannot vindicate him without throwing over its own Select Committee, which has reported so uncompromisingly on his case. He may lay stress on the fact that the Committee framed its own procedure and admitted evidence which might under more rigorous rules have been excluded, and that not complete justice was done in the report to all his own contentions. But a Select Committee is not meant to be a court of law. Mr. Boothby has been tried by a jury of his peers—able and conscientious men of the world, keenly jealous for the honour of Parliament and the standards to which public life in this country normally con- forms, and they seem to have had no hesitation about their verdict. The real question is whether, as the Committee allege, Mr. Boothby was promised a ro per cent. commission on any money which his efforts—efforts which depended on his influence as a Member of Parliament—might succeed in recover- ing for certain Czech claimants. If—and only if—he can rebut that charge effectively is his defence likely to make, much impression on an assembly which will not deny him its sympathy.
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