MR. VERNERsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If the desperado who twice attempted to shoot the police in the streets of Dublin is the same Cody or Byrne who was arrested at a Fenian Council, after violent resistance, on the 13th April of last year, and was liberated late in the Autumn; and, if the noble Lord has any objection to grant a Return of the number of Fenian prisoners who have been re-arrested out of the 500 and odd whom he stated at the beginning of the Session he had set free?
LORD NAASsaid, that in answer to the first Question of his hon. Friend, he had to state that the information of the Government was not quite complete; but he thought there could be no doubt that Cody, the person arrested the other day, was the same person as that referred to in the Question of the hon. Gentleman. That person would be tried at the Special Commission. In regard to the second Question of the hon. Member, he had to state that the Return had been already moved for, and would be laid on 391 the table that night. But to remove any misapprehension on the point, he should state that out of the 961 persons arrested under the Lord Lieutenant's warrant since February, 1866, when the Habeas Corpus Act was first suspended, only twenty-six persons had been re-arrested. The constabulary and police had always received instructions to see that the persons who had been liberated were showing no signs of returning to their former criminal courses. On the whole, the information received was very satisfactory.