HC Deb 14 February 1881 vol 258 cc765-6
MR. T. D. SULLIVAN

asked the Postmaster General, Whether any officials of the Government are at present empowered to open and read, for purposes of State, private letters entrusted to the care of his department, either in Great Britain or Ireland?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Sir, the duty of answering this Question belongs to the Secretary of State, and not to the Postmaster General, who has no responsibility in this matter. I will, therefore, with the leave of the House, reply to it. The power of the Secretary of State to open and detain letters is one which is reserved and sanctioned by Parliament in the Statute 1 Vict. c. 36, s. 25, and has been deliberately continued ever since. The employment of that power is an act of the gravest responsibility, not to be exercised except upon urgent necessity for the safety of the State and of Her Majesty's subjects. The existence, known to the Government, of treasonable plots carried out by secret societies, like the Fenian conspiracy, which pursues its felonious ends by the most atrocious means, would justify and require the use of that power in the present as in past times. But the very nature of the dangers which might demand its employment is such as requires the Minister intrusted by Parliament with the right and the duty of putting it in force to ask the support of this House in declining to make any statement which might baffle and defeat the object for which it was conferred. This power should either be taken away from the Secretary of State, or, if the grave responsibility of possessing it is imposed upon him, he should be protected in times like the present in his discretion as to its exorcise.

MR. CALLAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he has or has not exercised the power in the case of any Member or Members of the House during the present Session of Parliament?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

If I were to reply to that Question, it would be in exactly the same words as those employed by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the answer which he has just given.