§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to an assault recently perpetrated by Students of Pembroke College, Oxford, upon a Catholic priest who was spending the evening in the college in the rooms of some private friends; whether the account given in the "Oxford Times" of March 3rd is substantially correct, namely, that
undergraduate members of the collego…provided themselves with screws and other appliancesfor screwing up the door of the chambers where the clergyman was a guest, andthen the men assembled beneath the windows and indulged in rough music for a couple of hours or more. Finally the Dons interfered, the door was bodily wrenched away and the priest was liberated. No sooner did he appear in the quad, with a messenger and the porter on either side, and two Dons before, and two behind to guard him, than he was pelted with oranges, apples, and other missiles, surrounded, hustled, hooted, seized, his hat knocked off, and literally kicked out of the college, his hat being thrown after him;and, what steps have been taken or will be taken in reference to these proceedings?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI have no cognizance of these matters. The proper course for the hon. Member to pursue is to apply to the College authorities or to the local police.
§ MR. O'DONNELLasked if he was to understand that violent assaults upon Her Majesty's subjects within Oxford Colleges were outside the domain of the Common Law? He should repeat the Question to-morrow.
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTIt is no use repeating the Question, for I shall be unable to give the hon. Member any other answer. The custodians of the peace are the local authorities, and the Home Office has no authority whatever in the matter.