sorry to say, that among the public at large his character had been torn from him by anonymous publications of the most scandalous and virulent description. He would venture to affirm that there was no gentleman on either side of the house, let his politics be what they might, who had investigated the merits of his case, and possessed sufficient knowledge of it to decide on the accusations which had been preferred against him. In such a condition, though he felt himself perfectly guiltless, he could not think of presenting himself as a candidate for the office which he had filled in the two last Parliaments, until he had removed the calumnies which had been propagated against him. He was sure that the house would do him justice when an inquiry into them was instituted, and that it would, in the mean time, appreciate the motives which induced him to act as he then acted. All that he would say further was, that he was guiltless of all fraud, and that he wished the transaction alluded to by the honorable alderman who had brought it before the house to be fully investigated. At present he bowed before the storm which had been excited against him; but he was convinced that fair weather would soon return, and that his character would shine with undiminished brightness in spite of the clouds which now obscured it. He would not trespass further on the attention of the house-on previous occasions he had often received its indulgence-all that he now asked for was its justice. In conclusion he challenged the worthy alderman who had been the first to assail his character, to give him a speedy opportunity of vindicating it from the charges which he had brought against it.

Mr. CANNING said that he was sure that only one impression could have been generated in the house by the address which the hon. gentleman who had just sat down had delivered to it,—an address which was as creditable to that hon. gent.'s sense of what was due to himself, as it was consonant to the honor of the house, and to the feelings of those whose duty it was to suggest a fit person to fill the chair of the committees. For his own part, he felt that the house, although it might avail itself of the hon. member's resolution to withdraw himself at present from the chair, which he had filled with so much credit to himself and advantage to the public, and he could assure it, that he did not intend to propose the hon. gentleman for its chairman, after what he had just said, -he felt, he repeated, that the house, if the hon. gentleman came from the inquiry, which he had challenged, free from all moral taint, would be sorry to make any arrangement which would preclude him from again filling that situation, which he had already dignified by his industry and talents. At the same time he (Mr. Canning) must observe, that if it had been possible, if it had been' either respectful to the house or kind to the individual, to press him against his own disclaimer, he should have been reluctant to

place him (Mr. Brogden) at present in the chair, because he felt that a thousand opportunities during the ordinary business of parliament might arise, in which the vague rumors, which had necessarily reached the ears of every member in the house, might prove impediments to the progress of business, and matter of unpleasantness to the hon. member himself. The course which the hon. member had taken was, in his opinion, eminently manly, wise, and honorable. He was confident that the hon. alderman who had menaced that hon. member-and he did not use the word "menaced'' in an offensive sense-perhaps he ought rather to have said, who had given that hon. member notice of his intention to oppose his re-election to the office of chairman of the committees of the house, would feel himself bound to give him as early as possible the opportunity which he sought to exculpate his character. Until that exculpation was complete, he should not deem it respectful to the house, or indeed consistent with his own character, to propose to place the hon. member in that situation, which he could not fill to the public advantage, unless he took it free from all moral taint. When the proper opportunity arrived, he should propose as chairman, pro tempore, another gentleman, who had long been a member of the house, who was conversant with its forms and modes of transacting business, and whom he could venture to recommend to their notice as a man of unblemished honor. He would also say this of that gentleman, that though the chairmanship of their committees would be to him, as it must be to every member, an object of honorable and praise-worthy ambition, he would be more happy. in restoring it to its ancient possessor, free from all reproach, than he would be in holding it himself, whilst that gentleman was laboring, unjustly, under the obloquy and indignation of the public.

Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN said that he felt himself in as painful a situation—indeed he might say, in a more painful situationthan he had ever before felt in addressing a public assembly. He wished it to be distinctly understood by the house that he did not come forward as the accuser of the hon. gent. With regard to the transactions which he (Mr. Waithman) had brought before it, and which the hon. member had acknowledged to be fraudulent, he (Mr. Brogden) said that he knew nothing. He gave the hon. member credit for that assertion; and he now informed the house, that it was not on that ground alone that he opposed the re-election of the hon, member to the situation of chairman of the committees of the house. He had seen so much of the gambling speculations which had recently disgraced and exhausted the country, he knew so much of the manner in which they were concocted and subsequently managed, that he considered it derogatory from the honor of the house to have any man connected with so many of them, as

the hon. member was, placed in the respectable situation of chairman of their committees. "Indeed," continued the hon. alderman, "had it been possible for you, Mr. Speaker, to have been connected in the manner the hon. member is, with numbers of these jointstock companies, I should have felt it to be my duty, on public grounds, to have made the same objection to your re-election to the office which you now so honorably fill, as I ventured to say that I should make to the re-election of the honorable member to the post which he filled in the last parliament." He declared that he should not have said a word bearing on the hon. member, had he (Mr. Brogden) sought for any other situation than that which he had twice before had the honor of filling; and though he might have felt it his duty to have brought the whole of the joint-stock companies under the notice of Parliament, he should not have placed the hon. member's connexion with them under its consideration, unless it had arisen naturally out of the investigation. He knew that many honorable men, who were members of that house, had lent their names to those speculations, and that by so doing they had inflicted considerable mischief on unsuspecting individuals, though they had had no participation in the fraud which had injured them. If such an inquiry as he proposed should take place, he trusted that the house (even though some hon. members of it should be implicated by it, and should be proved to have extracted money out of the pockets of the people, by raising the price of shares by unfair and dishonorable artifices) would do its duty to the country, and would institute a rigid investigation into every circumstance connected with the subject. It might perhaps be asked why he had put himself so prominently forward on this occasion. He could give many reasons; but one should suffice. It was his fortune to be placed in a high and dignified situation in the year 1824, when this mania was at its height. He was at that time Lord Mayor of London, and in consequence, had numberless applications from the various parties in getting up the bubbles, to give his name as a sanction to them. He believed that by putting his name to those applications he might have put many thousands of pounds in his pocket. He saw, however, through the views of the parties who applied to him; he saw the mischief which their schemes were certain to produce; and he determined to enter his protest against them. It was, perhaps, that very determination which induced him to watch the progress of those bubbles more narrowly than he otherwise should have done, and the knowledge which he acquired by so watching them, convinced him of the necessity of entering into an investigation of their nature, in case the honorable member, or any other gentleman, connected with equal numbers of them, should aspire to the chairmanship of the committees of that

house, in order to enable the house to decide whether they were or were not qualified to perform its functions. He thought it right to observe here, once for all, that he had no sort of personal ill-will to the hon. member-he had known him many yearshe had had some commercial dealings with him; and from the time when his acquaintance commenced with the hon. member, down to the present moment, he had never had any ground to complain of him as a man of honor. He felt it his duty, however, on public grounds, to bring the subject before the house; he had observed these gambling speculations from their commencement to their close; he had witnessed the ruin which they had diffused throughout all parts of the country; he had seen men of large property stripped of their all, and placed in the Gazette, owing to their dabbling in them; and he therefore thought that a full examination ought to be instituted into them-not an examination confined to the hon. member, and letting others go free, but one which should embrace within its scope all who had become directors of these various companies. In conclusion, he said, that if the hon. member should be able to exonerate himself from the charges which had been publicly brought against him, he should be as well pleased as any of the hon. member's friends, and should not offer any opposition to his re-election to that chair, in the fulfilment of whose duties he believed that the hon. member had hitherto given full satisfaction.

Tuesday, November 28th, 1826.

ARIGNA MINING COMPANY.

Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN said he had a petition to present to the house which was of great importance to the public, and involved also the honor and independence of the house. The petition was from Mr. Roger Flattery, of Dublin, who was formerly a civil engineer in the employment of Government, and whose name must be familiar to many gentlemen present as connected with the Arigna Mining Company. The petitioner complained of a variety of grievances which he suffered in consequence of his connexion with that mischievous and ruinous undertaking. It appeared that Mr. Flattery had sold his interest in the Arigna mines to the undertakers of that scheme, for the sum of 10,000, reserving to himself one-fifth of the profits thereof, making his interest in the company to amount to 25,000l. Of that sum, however, he complained that he had been unjustly defrauded, in consequence of the malpractices of the directors of the Arigna Mining Company. The petitioner therefore prayed the house to

take the conduct of those persons into consideration, and also to institute an inquiry with respect to the part which some hon. members of that house had taken with regard to that concern. The presenting of this petition had in some measure anticipated his (Mr. Waithman's) intention to bring the whole of the proceedings of the Arigna Company before the house, which he had intended to do some day in the next week. With respect to an hon. gentleman whose name was connected with the company, he (Mr. Waithman) should certainly have fulfilled his intention of bringing forward to the notice of the house the conduct of that gentleman, and it was his fixed determination to have shown that he could not, consistently with the dignity and honor of Parlia ment, have filled the situation to which he had been appointed. That hon. gentleman, however, having declined to act, he (Mr. Waithman) would not have felt himself called on to proceed any further at present, nor did he wish to bring forward charges either against the hon. gentleman, or against any other individual, but that facts had lately come to his knowledge which he should feel it his duty to submit to the house on an early occasion, and he hoped that a committee would be appointed to whom the case would be referred, and that that committee should be composed of gentlemen who were not interested in companies of this description. With respect to the present petitioner, he (Mr. Waithman) could assure the house that he never saw him until this day, nor had he ever had any connexion directly or indirectly with that individual previous to the present occasion. The worthy alderman concluded by moving that the petition be brought up. The SPEAKER wished to ask the hon. gentleman whether the petition implicated any hon. member of that house by name. Alderman WAITHMAN-No, not by name.

The petition, which ran as follows, was then brought up and read :

To the Right Honorable and Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled ; The humble Petition of Roger Flattery, of the City of Dublin, Civil Engineer, formerly in the employ of His Majesty's Government,

Showeth,-That your petitioner having read in The Times, and other newspapers, reports of the proceedings in your honorable house on Tuesday last, the 22d November instant, when mention of your petitioner was made by name, and the conduct and character of one or more of the members of your honorable house were, in the opinion of your petitioner, justly called in question, your petitioner humbly hopes that your honorable house will be pleased to accept a short detail of facts at the hands of your petitioner, whereby the conduct of certain members of your honorable house may be investigated, and justice awarded.

Your petitioner finds that the fact of a certain sum of money, 15,000l.,