§ MR. BELLINGHAMasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether a meeting of the Revolutionary Congress was forbidden by the Swiss Government to be held within the confines of Swiss territory; whether the Government intend to tolerate meetings that a friendly Republic deems too objectionable to be permitted to take place within its jurisdiction; and; whether the Government, as the defenders of law and order, are prepared to prohibit such exhibitions for the future, or will extend their protection to those who attack all authority?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTI have nothing substantially to add to the answer I gave the other day, which the hon. Member was pleased to designate as evasive. I intended it to be as frank and explicit as possible. I must say, looking at the terms in which the Question is couched, that it is not necessary for the hon. Member to stimulate me by the example of the Government of Switzerland, or of any other foreign Power of whose action and principles of action I have no intimate knowledge. We have our own well-established and well-understood traditions in these matters, which afford a safer and a surer guide to an English Minister. The distinction in these cases is obvious and in- 1743 telligible. When any persons, by speech or writing, incite to crime, whether at home or abroad, then it is the duty of the Government to invoke the law for the punishment of the offenders. And, as has been recently shown in the prosecution of The Freiheit, where there is evidence to such an effect the law will be put in motion and is adequate for the purpose. Further than that we cannot wisely or safely go. When opinions, however extravagant or wicked, are not associated with crime, the Government has no authority, and cannot undertake to deal with the matter. If any evidence should be forthcoming to show that persons in this country are engaged in the incitement to or the perpetration of crime, the Government will always be ready to vindicate the law against them. As to the last part of the Question of the hon. Member, though this matter is not so well understood abroad, I should have thought the hon. Member would have known when he asks me—
Whether the Government, as the defenders of law and order, are prepared to prohibit such exhibitions for the future, or will extend their protection to those who attack all authority?that by the Constitution of this country it is not the Government, but the law, which extends its protection to all persons within the Dominions of the Queen who do not transgress its commands. The English Government can do nothing against the law or beyond the law. We are only the Executive officers of the law, such as Parliament chooses to appoint.
§ MR. BELLINGHAMasked whether persons in Ireland had not been imprisoned for using language far less violent than that which had been made use of at this meeting?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTNo, Sir; according to my belief and knowledge, no man is imprisoned in Ireland except in accordance with the law.