This page lists every recorded use of the words injurious and injuriously in parliamentary debate during 1818. Each instance is reproduced in its context as recorded in Hansard.
This survey forms part of the evidence for the correct legal interpretation of injurious weeds in the Weeds Act 1959. See also why “harmful weeds” misrepresents the law.
| Speaker | Context |
|---|---|
| The Attorney General | He admitted that because the man had been prosecuted for one libel of an injurious and mischievous tendency, and acquitted—he ought not on that account to be punished for a publication that was innocent in its nature; but in the case of Mr. Hone, it had certainly appeared to him, that the character of all the publications charged as libels was the same. |
| Lord Castlereagh | But other topics of a very different nature had been introduced; and one noble lord had, in the course of his speech, said what he could wish had been spared, but as the subject had been entered upon, he must protest against what had been said, as being likely to create an injurious feeling as to the administration of public justice; namely, that the condemnation and execution of the persons at Derby were brought about by the tampering of agents employed by government. |
| Sir F. Burdett | It was from Bath, and stated, "That the petitioners, deeply impressed with the evils that have resulted, and the ruin that threatens to follow, from the injurious state of the representation of the people, entreat the early attention of the House to the question of parliamentary reform; a great proportion, perhaps a majority of the House, so far from being the representatives of the people, are notoriously known to represent the interests of wealthy peers or trading borough-holders, or to have purchased seats in the House for the express purpose of disposing of them to the best advantage to the ministry of the day, one of whom has been himself branded with trafficking in this disgraceful barter of national honour for individual comfort; such a state of pollution in an assembly, which ought to be the source of honour, and the fountain of prosperity and freedom, has entailed upon this injured country all the mischiefs attendant upon a state of corruption so gross, and a dependence so unlimited upon the increased and increasing influence of the crown; and being firmly convinced that a radical reform in the representation, a recurrence to annual parliaments, and the adoption of universal suffrage, are the only means of preventing a fatal revolution, the petitioners ask, from the wisdom of the truly honourable members of the House, those measures, which can alone restore the confidence and secure the tranquillity of the nation." |
| Earl Grosvenor | said, that all that had occurred since the subject was last discussed had only tended to fortify him in his opinion, that nothing could be more injurious to the interests of the public than granting offices in reversion. |
| Lord King | Without a metallic currency there could be no certainty, no stability in any contracts or dealings, and speculation was let loose upon the country in all its most injurious forms. |
| Lord Folkestone | But there was one part of that arrangement which was injurious to the public; and that was the circumstance, that no petitions were printed in the votes, except such as were expressly ordered to be printed by a specific vote, which were published in an appendix. |
| Sir R. Peel | Previously to any regulation having been made as to the employment of persons in the different manufactories, his establishments were as faulty as those of any other person, but when such regulation was proposed, he perceived, with surprise, the former injurious mode of regulating them, and was most anxious to concur in the proposed remedy. |
| Lord Milton | He could not agree with the right hon. gentleman, that no injurious consequences had arisen from the employment of Oliver. |
| Mr. Wilberforce | This he regarded as most injurious to the country. |
| Mr. Canning | This, then, was the committee to which it was now proposed to intrust these mighty matters—men, whose labours were injurious rather than beneficial, and whose report would be a tissue of false facts and erroneous opinions. |
| Lord Archibald Hamilton | All these were abuses of the most discreditable and injurious nature. |
| Lord Archibald Hamilton | He should be very sorry if any thing he 6aid or did, should be injurious to that cause which he was anxious to serve.— It was the cause of Scotland; and, in his conscience, he believed, that in no way could he more effectually promote the best and permanent interests of that country, than by using his humble efforts to effect the destruction of this odious system of burgh-management—to annul that abominable abuse, the self-election of magistrates, and to establish the liability of those entrusted with the funds and possessions of burghs, to have their management brought to the test of strict and accurate accounts. |
| Earl Bathurst | There were two subjects of complaint in the petitions; first, illegal and injurious arrest; secondly, cruel and harsh treatment during the detention of the petitioners. |
| Earl Bathurst | As to the charge of illegal and injurious arrest, what would the noble lord propose to be done? |
| Sir W. Scott | They stated, that the system of tithes was injurious to the agricultural interests of the country and the christian religion; they prayed the House to make such regulation in them as might best suit the insular situation of Great Britain, and be most consistent with its political relations. |
| Mr. Curwen | On a former occasion, he concurred in opinion with those who thought an alteration in the system not only proper, but necessary; but since then he had had many opportunities of becoming more practically acquainted with the details and with the real facts; and he now felt confident, that to legislate at all upon the subject, would be ruinous to the trade, and injurious to the parties who were intended to be relieved. |
| Sir F. Flood | He thought nothing could he more injurious to property, reputation, and life than the vice of gaming. |
| Colonel Palmer | He had also been told by another gentleman at Chelsea that having been at the expence of fitting up his whole House with gas lights, he had found the effluvia so intolerably offensive, and so injurious to the health of his children, that he had been compelled to have the apparatus removed. |
| Mr. Davenport | If the bill was founded on the report of the committee, it might be desirable to hear the opinions of the different members who had attended most closely to the investigation of this matter; if it was founded oft the petition which had been recently presented, it might be proper to inquire into the truth of its allegations, with a view to ascertain whether the petitioners might not have asked for the adoption of a measure which would be more injurious than beneficial to their interests. |
| Sir F. Burdell | To prove the injuriousness of such a system, it was in evidence, at the time night work existed, that the children employed on it were less unhealthy than those who worked in the day, because the former had a few hours of play, and from this circumstance their work, though at a time supposed to be so destructive to health, was found to be less injurious than such unremitting, unrelaxed exertion. |
| Sir Samuel Romilly | But it was a grave matter of complaint, that a sheriff or any other person should take upon himself to pronounce an individual under such circumstances guilty of another crime, for which he had not been tried (however evident his guilt might appear), and to cause his exhibition in so hideous a form, and in a way so disgraceful to the character of the country, and so injurious to the morals of the people.—He well remembered when, upon a former occasion, a gentleman, now no more, of the greatest talents, and in words much better than he could use, animadverted in that House on a similar proceeding at the interment of a wretched and criminal suicide. |
| Lord Sidmouth | He would not, therefore, touch upon them: indeed, his chief object in rising had been to state, that Oliver, the individual so often alluded to, could not come within the scope of the present bill; for he had done nothing that required forgiveness or indemnity; and he defied any noble lord to say, that he had made use of Oliver in any way repugnant to strict honour, or to strict law; or that he had exercised any of his official functions in any way injurious to the sound principles of the British constitution. |
| Mr. Peel | It would be agreed on all hands that nothing could be more injurious or unsafe than a sudden reduction in the military force on Ireland; and he was sure that the House would be of opinion that a reduction beyond that made in the present estimate was consistent with the internal security of that country. |
| The Marquis of Lansdowne | England would then be robbed of that which, however it might be sometimes injurious to individuals, was so generally glorious and beneficial, that no partial inconvenience could counterbalance it. |
| Mr. Tierney, | It was no answer to say, that lord Sidmouth was himself a man of good character; that the secretary for the home department could not in any way be attacked, when the proposal was, that an inquiry should be instituted into an odious system, which had grown from year to year, and was now arrived at a height disgraceful to the character and injurious to the consti- 854 tution of the country. |
| Mr. Croker | He would mention, however, that, generally speaking, they were not scientific, but typographical errors: but the mischief that must arise from such a publication was an injurious in the one case as in the other. |
| Mr. Lockhart | This they describe as extremely injurious to the community at large. |
| Mr. Lockhart | And in another place they observe, that the practice was also growing 933 in the country, and ought to be put down, as most injurious. |
| Mr. Charles Barclay | The public-houses almost exclusively in the country, were in the hands of brewers, a practice which he had before stated in this House, as in his opinion most injurious to themselves and the public. |
| Lord Compton | The observation of the right hon. gentleman with respect to the property tax should not alter the vote which he intended to give; for though his opinion of that tax was unchanged, yet he would rather see some direct tax than that species of tax which was so injurious to a very large portion of the people. |
| Mr. Sturges Bourne | This was, at the present moment, a matter of the utmost consequence; for a practice most injurious had become prevalent to a very great extent, both in manufacturing and in agricultural districts, which ought by all means to be counteracted—that of lowering the wages of labour, and making good the deficiency out of the poor-rates. |
| Mr. Calvert | With regard to the beer being rendered injurious to the stomach from the use of deleterious articles, he hoped he should have no occasion to tell the House, that the brewers of London were incapable of introducing poisonous articles into the common beverage of the town, day by day, week by week, and year by year. |
| The Solicitor General | If this was the case, it would be pernicious to introduce a clause, or a superfluous word, the only effect of which might be to raise a doubt where no doubt at present existed, and to stimulate to proceedings that might prove highly injurious to the parties instituting them. |
| Mr. Wetherell | The hon. and learned member then went through the several clauses of the bill, and pointed out what he conceived to be the injurious tendency of each. |
| Mr. J. H. Smyth | Its provisions, he conceived, were of a most injurious tendency, as they regarded the protection of church property. |
| Mr. Peel | Herein was contained the evidence of the constant eye-witnesses of the injurious consequences of excessive labour, and long-continued confinement in the cotton factories in that neighbourhood. |
| Mr. Peel | There was thus the authority of thirty medical men, resident in Manchester, who were of opinion that the hours of labour were excessive, and that the effect of that excess was most injurious to the individuals exposed to it. |
| Mr. Peel | No one could, after this, assert that there was not satisfactory evidence before the House of the excess of labour, and of its injurious consequences. |
| Mr. C. Grant, | Those persons argued on a totally mistaken principle, who imagined that any diminution of taxation at that period would have relieved the country from any of those circumstances operating injuriously on our general trade, which were so notorious, that it was not necessary for him to repeat them. |
| Lord Althorp | He had not heard any thing to convince him of the policy of continuing this tax; but, on the other hand, he was 1198 fully persuaded that it was very injurious to the manufacturers, and to the consumers. |
| Mr. Wynn | presented a Petition from the Booksellers and Publishers of London and Westminster; setting forth, "That by an act passed in the 54th of his majesty, to amend the several acts for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies and copyright of printed books to the authors of such books or their assigns, it was enacted, amongst other things, that 11 copies of the whole of every book and of every volume thereof upon the paper upon which the largest number or impression of such book should be printed for sale, together with all maps and prints belonging thereto, which from and after the passing of the said act should be printed and published, on demand thereof being made in writing to, or left at the place of abode of the publisher or publishers thereof, at any time within twelve months next after the publication thereof, under the hand of the warehouse keeper of the Company of Stationers, or the librarian, or other person thereto authorized by the persons or body politic and corporate, proprietors or managers of the libraries following, viz. the British Museum, Sion College, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the public library at Cambridge, the library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, the libraries of the four Universities of Scotland, Trinity College Library, and the King's Inns Library at Dublin, or so much of such eleven copies as should be respectively demanded on behalf of such libraries respectively, should be delivered by the publisher or publishers thereof respectively, within one month after demand made thereof in writing, as aforesaid, to the warehouse keeper of the said Company of Stationers for the time being; that the petitioners hoped and expected that the librarians, or other persons authorized by the proprietors or managers of the said eleven libraries, would have demanded the copies of such books only as would be of real and lasting utility in such libraries, and that a selection would have been made from the general mass of publications for that purpose; but the petitioners respectfully state, that every book published and entered at Stationers-hall has been demanded for the said libraries, without any discrimination or selection, excepting that for two of them, namely, the Advocates' library in Edinburgh and Trinity College in Dublin, no music or novels are claimed, but for all the others both music and 1227 novels have been demanded; that, in the bill brought into the House on which the said act was framed, the said delivery of books was limited to those which should be first published after the passing of the said act, but, in the ultimate wording of the said act, as it now stands, the petitioners have become liable to a delivery of all reprints of books published before the passing of the said act, although the same may not contain any addition or alteration, and although a former edition of such books may be already in the possession of these libraries; and, from the system of indiscriminate demand adopted by the said libraries, all such re-prints are so demanded, which operates to discourage the re-printing of former publications; the petitioners respectfully submit, that it cannot answer any object of instruction or improvement, that every book which shall be published., whatever may be its subject, its tendency, or its merits, should be demanded for the use of the said libraries, as, from this indiscriminate demand, a great number of books are taken from the petitioners which can only become waste, and they are thereby heavily burthened without any adequate advantage to the said libraries, while no instance has occurred in which any books demanded and delivered have been returned to the petitioners when they were found not to be necessary or useful to such libraries; and they humbly beg permission to infer, that it could not be the intention of the legislature that they should be burthened by the delivery of books which are not only not useful, but which are actually detrimental, or an incumbrance to the libraries themselves; the petitioners do not wish to deprive the said libraries of the beneficial enjoyment of their right under the said act, so far as the real objects of their respective institutions are thereby promoted, and so far as such right could be exercised with such modifications as will preserve the petitioners from unnecessary grievance; but the petitioners feel, that nine-tenths of the publications daily issuing from the press, are neither necessary nor advantageous to all those libraries, and yet the delivery heavily burthens the petitioners, and that they are all aggrieved thereby, but on some, from the expense and risk of their publications, it falls with peculiar severity; the grievance under which the petitioners labour, and from which they humbly pray the House to afford them some relief, is not, 1228 as has been asserted, of a trifling nature; if it were so, they would not complain; but daily experience makes them feel more heavily the burthen, and convinces them that its effects will be seriously injurious to literature in general; they therefore respectfully hope for some legislative regulation, which may induce the managers of these libraries to make a selection of the books which they may demand, so that the petitioners may have to deliver those only which are likely to be of real and permanent utility; and they humbly conceive, that to require the libraries to pay some part of the price of each book they may demand, will induce them to make such a selection as will be most beneficial to themselves, and will lessen the burthen to the petitioners; that they forbear to state in detail the heavy grievances which these demands and deliveries have occasioned to them individually, because they hope that some regulation, to the effect above-mentioned, will produce a material relief, and because they are informed that a bill is now before the House with this object in view; they therefore most humbly pray, that the House will, in its wisdom, be pleased to grant them some relief, as to the demand and delivery of the eleven copies of books for the libraries above mentioned, by enacting, in the bill now before the House, some regulations which will make it expedient that these libraries should only demand such books as it will be proper and useful that they should possess, either by requiring some part of the selling price thereof to be paid at the time of demand, or by such other provisions as to the House shall seem meet." |
| Mr. Grenfell | He would not on the present occasion enter into details, but he could not refrain from making a few allusions to the many pretexts on which the restriction act had been prolonged, and which, if continued, would I have so injurious an effect upon all the property of the kingdom, and necessarily produce here the same mischiefs that such a system had uniformly produced in every country in the civilized world which was left to depend on a paper issue not convertible to a metallic currency. |
| Sir Ro 1260 bert Peel | He thought the petition was of the first consequence, in showing the necessity of the measure he wished to have adopted.—The petition was then read: it purported to be from the labourers above sixteen years of age, employed in the cotton-spinning factories of Stockport, and others of that town, and stated in substance, that under the existing regulations, workmen were over-laboured, over heated, and subject to oppressive inconveniences; that the personal experience of most of the petitioners showed how injurious the system was to the constitution. |
Injurious weeds and the law | Why “harmful weeds” misrepresents the law