§ MR. M. BROOKSasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether it is the fact that the "Freeman's Journal," a leading newspaper of Ireland, is the only one of the five daily papers in Dublin to which Government advertisements are not sent; whether it is the only one of the five Dublin daily papers professing Liberal and Home Rule principles; and, whether he has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House the official list of the Irish newspapers to which Government advertisements were sent when Her Majesty's Ministers entered office, with a statement of the changes which have since been made, and the reasons for each such change?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHI think this Question would have been more properly addressed to the Secretary to the Treasury than to myself; but, as a matter of fact, I believe that The Freeman's Journal does not receive all the Government advertisements. It is really no part of my business to inform the hon. Member whether that journal is or is not the only daily paper in Dublin professing Liberal or Home Rule principles; though I did not know up to this time that those political epithets were synonymous. The terms of the hon. Member's Question seem to imply an idea that Government advertisements are to be regarded in the light of a subsidy to the Press, and that The Freeman's Journalought not to be deprived of its participation in that advantage by the peculiar and apparently unpopular principles which it professes; but Government advertisements are inserted in news- 817 papers in order to make those persons who may be likely to supply the Government wants acquainted with them. The different Departments advertise their wants in those papers which they think possess the most general circulation, not so much amongst the public at large as amongst the class by which their wants are likely to be supplied. I have no such official list as that alluded to in the last part of the Question; but I know that many newspapers in Ireland opposed to the present Government in political opinion receive advertisements from one Department or another of the Government. For instance, some advertisements sent out from the Chief Secretary's Office are inserted in The Freeman's Journal, and I have no doubt that the Secretary to the Treasury would be prepared to consider any arguments which the hon. Member may adduce with the view of showing that it would be for the public advantage that more advertisements should be inserted in that newspaper than now appear there.