§ MR. LAYARDsaid, he wished to make a statement with respect to a Question put to him the other night by the hon. Member for the county of Cork (Mr. Scully), who asked whether Government had received any information with respect to a Proclamation said to have been issued by General Mouravieff, that Polish women were to be subjected to the knout for wearing mourning. He stated that no such information had been received by Her Majesty's Government, and regretted that he was not able to give a denial to the report which appeared in the public papers. Since then a telegraphic message had been received from St. Petersburg, and the Russian Government requested Her Majesty's Government to state publicly that no such order had been issued. At the same time, he was bound to say that the reports which Her Majesty's Government received from Poland and Russia tended to confirm in many respects the fact that numerous cruelties were practised.