THE O'CONOR DONsaid, he would beg to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to advise Her Majesty that the Royal clemency should be extended to persons suffering imprisonment or penal servitude for offences of a political character in connection with Ireland?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, the important subject to which his hon. Friend's Question referred, had met with the anxious attention of the Government. They had felt it their duty to examine most carefully the list of prisoners now undergoing penal servitude on charges of treason and treason-felony, in connection with the Fenian movement. They had examined those lists with a view to a ascertain whether, in their judgment, the clemency of the Crown could be extended to any of those persons. The general result of that examination had been this—that among those prisoners there were some who 160 might, with perfect safety to the public peace, be discharged forthwith. The class of prisoners to whom he referred might be described as partly young men, hot-headed men, who were led in an excited moment into criminal acts, for which they were now suffering; men, some of whom might be described as the dupes and tools of others; men incapable, as far as could be ascertained, of doing mischief hereafter as leaders in any future insurrectionary attempts. The number which the Government believed to come under such a description, and whom they thought might safely be discharged, was not inconsiderable. He would tell the House the number exactly as they now stood. Excluding the military convicts, whom the Government held to be in a very different position from the others, and whose cases had not been taken into account—excluding the military convicts, there were eighty-one prisoners under sentence of penal servitude. Of these forty-two were now in Australia and thirty-nine in Great Britain. It was proposed—acting on the rule that he had described, and which had been rigidly applied by a very close scrutiny into the case of each prisoner on the list—it was proposed that of these, forty-nine should be unconditionally discharged. Of these forty-nine there were now thirty-four in Australia and fifteen in Great Britain. That would leave thirty-two prisoners still to undergo their sentence, of whom nine were in Australia and the rest in this country. But he should tell the House that this list of thirty-two prisoners included almost all the main founders, leaders, and organizers of the Fenian movement; it included men who were deeply responsible for the attempted revolution of the last two or three years, and men whom the Government and the Lord Lieutenant felt it would not be consistent with their duty to discharge, or whose freedom would be compatible with the public safety—men, he might add, with regard to whom the Government had no reason to believe that they might not, if discharged, attempt again to renew their unhappy and criminal, although desperate enterprise, and to whom, therefore the Government, while rejoicing as they did, and as Lord Spencer did, that they had been able to reduce the list so largely, felt that the clemency of the Crown should not be extended.
MR. GATHORNE HARDYasked, whether the prisoners to be liberated in Australia would be left there or brought back to this country at the expense of the Government?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, he would prefer answering that Question to-morrow.