§ MR. BURTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If it is 781 true that Henry Hardwick and Richard Walford, who were sentenced, one to twenty and the other to fifteen years' penal servitude, about four years ago, have been released from Chatham Prison on a ticket of leave; whether other prisoners now in Chatham Prison have confessed that they committed the crime for which Hardwick and Walford were sentenced, and have asserted that the latter had nothing whatever to do with it; whether there is corroborative evidence to show that these men were innocent of the crime for which they have suffered four years' imprisonment; and, whether he would relieve Hardwick and Walford of the stigma which still attaches to them by recommending Her Majesty to grant them a free pardon?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,in reply, said, that this was one of the most difficult and embarrassing cases he had ever had to deal with. He had examined it over and over again, and had got every authority he could to examine it; but it had been impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion at all about it. The Solicitor General had also been unable to determine that the men were innocent, and he (Sir William Harcourt) therefore considered that the matter was invested with so much doubt that the best course would be to give the men licences; and if, after their being at large, further proof should be obtained of their innocence, of course the question of a free pardon would be given consideration. After the most careful attention having been given to the matter, they did not feel justified in at present giving a free pardon.
§ SIR R. ASSHETON CROSSasked whether the Judge who tried the men was consulted?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, he was, and he, also, was unable to come to the conclusion that the men were innocent.