124] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



justice, which applied to the bill as 

 now printed, that his noble friend 

 had professed his willingness to 

 anoend it. To the bill, if confined 

 to cases of libel, and guarded in its 

 limitations, he not only saw no 

 objections, but considered that it 

 would be productive of the great- 

 est good, b}' removing odium from 

 the administration of criminal jus- 

 tice. 



After a reply by Lord Holland, 

 the house divided on Lord Ellen- 

 borough's amendment : contents, 

 16 ; non-contents, 7 : majority 

 against the bill, 9. 



This question acqured addition- 

 al interest from a circumstance 

 which happened about this time in 

 Ireland and became a matter of de- 

 bate in parliament. On July 13, 

 Mr. Sheridan said, in the House'of 

 Commons, that he understood that 

 an ex-offifio prosecution had been 

 commenced against Mr. Fitzge- 

 rald, a printer in Ireland, for the 

 publication of a pamphlet contain- 

 ing a statement of the various acts 

 affecting the Roman Catholics, ac- 

 companied with observationsjwhich 

 he had read, and saw nothing in it 

 libellous but the acts themselves. 

 The notice served on Fitzgerald 

 was extremely curious: it required 

 him to show cause before Mr. 

 Saurin, the attorney-general, at 

 his house in Stephen's green, why 

 a criminal information should not 

 be filed against him. He submit- 

 ted that a proceeding of this na- 

 ture was quite illegal, and should 

 now move for the production of a 

 copy of it. 



Lord Castlereagh said that this 

 was the first time he had heard of 

 the subject, and he hoped the hon. 

 gentleman would not press his 



motion without a notice ; to which 

 Mr. Sheridan acceded. 



Mr. Sheridan, on July 21, rose 

 in pursuance of this notice, to call 

 the attention of the house to the 

 summons sent by the attorney-ge- 

 neral of Ireland to 3Ir. Fitzgerald. 

 He related the iact as above stated, 

 and said, that he knew not on _ 

 what authority an attorney-general 

 could require a man's attendance 

 at his own house, but he knew 

 that such a practice might lead to 

 mischievous consequences. Sup- 

 posing an ignorant man should be 

 summoned in that manner, the at- 

 torney-general might ask him to 

 sit down, tete-a-tete with him, 

 perhaps over a bottle of wine, in 

 his nice snug little back parlour of 

 a star-chamber, where he might be 

 induced to niter unguarded things 

 which might tend to his prejudice 

 when he came to his trial. He did 

 not suspect any such design from 

 Mr. Saurin ; but the esteem in 

 which he stood rendered it the more 

 necessary to examine his procted- 

 ings. He understood that Mr. 

 Fitzgerald did attend the sum- 

 mons, and that the attorney-gene- 

 ral had nothing to say to him. Mr. 

 Sheridan concluded with moving, 

 that a copy of the notice in ques- 

 tion be laid before the house. 



Mr. Wellesley Pole stated it to 

 have been the ordinary practice in 

 Ireland for the attorney-general to 

 give notice to the party against 

 whom an information vvas about to 

 be filed, of such an intention, and 

 to call u[)on an individual to show 

 cause why such information 

 should not be filed; the purpose 

 of which was, not to draw from 

 him what he might have to offer 

 in his defence, but to give him au 

 opportunity 



