COLONEL STUART KNOXsaid, he wished to remind his noble Friend the Chief Secretary for Ireland that this day week he had put a Question to him in regard to Professor Thompson, of Galway, and that as that gentleman had written a reply to The Daily News, he presumed the Government had heard from the President of the Queen's College on the subject. He therefore wished to ask, Whether the noble Lord had received any answer to his inquiries as to the sanity or otherwise of the Galway Professor, and whether his attention has been called to the fact that after writing one letter justifying the Fenians, and recommending hanging of landlords and Members of Parliament, the Professor had written another, apparently intended as a vindication, in which, among other matter, there was this statement—
Is a professional man to be treated like a refractory tenant-at-will for entertaining the views put forward by such men as Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, Mr. Goldwin Smith, Professor Fawcett, and others equal or nearly equal in repute?
LORD NAASreplied, that the Government had not instituted an inquiry as to the sanity of the Professor to whom his hon. and gallant Friend referred; but they had made a communication to the President of the Queen's College at Galway with regard to the letter to which his hon. and gallant Friend had on a former occasion called attention. The correspondence on the subject was still going on, and he was not in a position to answer the first inquiry of his hon. and gallant Friend at present.