HC Deb 08 April 1881 vol 260 cc1018-20
MR. TOTTENHAM

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the last number of the "Irish World," a newspaper, the avowed object of which is to incite the Irish people to sedition and rebellion, and in which the assassination of the Czar is treated as a legitimate incident in a civil war, in a paragraph headed "The War in Russia, the Commander of the Imperialists slain, and a score of Staff Officers and Cossacks killed and wounded," and the "Nihilist Victory" is fully described; wherein also the following paragraphs appear:— England is 'intoxicated with power and robbery, a peace-destroyer and a right-invader. Her record of infamy is not of one period, but of to-day and all time. Her presence is ever a lifelong damnation and curse.' The whole Irish race is exhorted to pray on their knees 'to the Most High for the suppression of the British Empire: The British Government, better known as the 'Pirate Empire,' constructs gallows for Patriots, dungeons for statesmen, and palaces for their criminals. On, Ireland! in the agonies of the starving death—dowered with a curse by a Parliament of the most inhuman fiends known to history. They stand to-day the most perfect embodiment of unrelieved iniquity known since the days of Sodom: My last words to-day are to study the use of arms; form military clubs; keep from whiskey and tobacco. Keep close mouths, and pray to our Heavenly Father fervently for the downfall of the 'British Empire' and the great wrongs it upholds; whether the Government allows the "Irish World" to be freely circulated through the whole length and breadth of Ireland; whether he is aware that the gratuitous circulation is largely subscribed for by the Land League branches in the United States as a means of Socialistic and revolutionary propaganda directed against the maintenance of English rule and the recognition of property in land; and, whether he intends to take any steps to check or put an end to the circulation of such a production?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

I must say that I think I answered with sufficient fulness in reply to an inquiry which was put to mo yesterday by the noble Lord the Member for Woodstock (Lord Randolph Churchill). The attention of Her Majesty's Government has been directed to The Irish World and to the particular copy of it to which the Question of the hon. Gentleman refers; but I would say that nothing is more difficult than to stop the circulation of a foreign newspaper in these Kingdoms. It is easy, and is therefore the duty of the Government where there is a publication of which we have heard recommending assassination, to proceed against the publisher, when they find the Press established in this country; but the difficulty in doing this in the case of the introduction of a foreign newspaper is very great, and I cannot understand any hon. Member failing to see the difference between the two cases.

MR. TOTTENHAM

What I wish to know is whether there are or are not legal powers to deal with the newspaper; or whether it is not deemed advisable to exercise them?

MR. A. M. SULLIVAN

wished to know whether, if there was any such power, it was only intended to use it against persons found in possession of the paper—persons, in fact, in the position of the hon. Member who put the Question.

MR. HEALY

And is the right hon. Gentleman aware that since the Questions on this subject were put to the House the circulation of The Irish World has increased?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

The hon. Member asks what legal measures can be taken? Suppose I were to tell him, does he think it would be to the advantage of law and order?

MR. TOTTENHAM

The right hon. Gentleman is in error. All I want to know is whether there are legal powers to deal with the matter?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

The articles published in The Irish World, and the fact of its circulation in Ireland, are occupying the attention of the Government.