§ VISCOUNT GODERICHsaid, he wished to put a question to the noble Lord the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs relative to the recent expulsion of Mr. Francis Stead from Prussia, by the police authorities of Berlin. It appeared that, in the month of August last, Mr. Stead visited Berlin, and, after residing there for two days, was arrested by the police, by whom he was detained in custody for a whole day, at the expiration of which period he was set at liberty, with an intimation that he must leave Berlin in the course of six hours, and that, if he returned, he would he committed to prison for one month. He (Viscount Goderich) should be glad to know whether the Prussian Government had offered any apology or explanation of such extraordinary conduct?
LORD STANLEYsaid, that the noble Lord had stated with accuracy the circumstances which had accompanied the arrest of Mr. Stead. Immediately after that event, Mr. Stead had very properly laid a statement of his case before Lord Bloom-field, our Ambassador at Berlin, who represented the matter to the Prussian authorities, and at the same time Communicated with the Foreign Office. Lord Bloomfield at first received nothing more than the usual formal reply, that inquiry should be instituted and explanation given. After the lapse of a little time, an explanation was offered by the Prussian Government, to the effect that the Prussian police had obtained information from England that a person of the name of Stead was about to leave this country, and that he was implicated in a conspiracy to assassinate the King of Prussia. They were under the impression that Mr. Francis Stead was the person so described, and it was that suspicion that had led to his arrest and expulsion. The Prussian Government had expressed 782 their regret at the circumstance, but he was bound to say that their explanation appeared so unsatisfactory, that another case having occurred about the same time, where a British subject was treated with almost equal harshness, Her Majesty's Government felt it to be their duty to remonstrate strongly upon the subject of their proceedings with the Prussian Government. It was due to Mr. Stead to say that nothing which had occurred in connexion with his arrest was in the slightest degree calculated to affect his character injuriously.