§ MR. BIGGARasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 25 Whether it is not the fact that Mr. Macaulay, who was arrested on suspicion of "treasonable practices," after having first declined to sign conditions on being offered his release, some days afterwards applied to the prison authorities and begged to be allowed to sign them; if the Government did not declare that their conditional intention to release him was much modified by his first refusal to sign; and, if so, will he state what circumstances transpired in Mr. Macaulay's favour between his first refusal to sign and his subsequent intimation of willingness to do so, to induce the Government to consent to his release; if it is true that Mr. Macaulay was allowed during his imprisonment to send out of Kilmainham articles to a Mayo paper against the Land League; and, whether the privilege of writing political articles on any subject is allowed to every suspect previously connected or unconnected with the Press?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, that the first portion of the Question was correct. The Government had made no such declaration as that referred to in the second portion. Mr. Macaulay had not been allowed to send articles to Mayo against the Land League or on any other subject. The privilege of writing articles was only extended to those who were engaged in that profession.