HC Deb 03 March 1881 vol 259 cc149-50
MR. GRAY

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he will kindly read to the House the telegram he received from Mr. John Devoy of New York, and to which reference was made yesterday?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I hope the hon. Member will not think me discourteous if I decline to comply with his request. If I produced the telegram, I should be giving to the affair an importance it does not deserve.

MR. CALLAN

If the right hon. Gentleman will not read the telegram, perhaps he will inform the House, and through the House his many friends, whether the telegram alleged to have been received by him from Mr. John Devoy really contained any positive threat as to the right hon. Gentleman's life. I ask the Question all the more, as I understand that Mr. John Devoy is rather a small man.

MR. GRAY

; Will the right hon. Gentleman say whether he still adheres to his assertion, that the words "stamp out" were used in the telegram?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I will not say. It is some time since I saw the telegram; but I remember the word "stamp" was in it. The other hon. Member asks me on behalf of his many friends—[Mr. CALLAN: The right hon. Gentleman's many friends.]—I do not know whether the hon. Member——

MR. CALLAN

I rose distinctly to ask the right hon. Gentleman to allay the fears of the right hon. Gentleman's own friends.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I thought, perhaps, you meant the many friends of Mr. John Devoy.

MR. CALLAN

Sir! ["Order!"]

MR. SPEAKER

The hon. Member has put his Question, and he must allow the right hon. Gentleman to answer it.

MR. CALLAN

I ask the House to allow me to express my regret and indignation that the right hon. Gentleman should think it consistent with his position to insinuate that I am in any way one of Mr. Devoy's friends.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

I did not mean to insinuate that the hon. Member was a friend of Mr. John Devoy, and I am very glad he repudiates him; but, as he has asked the Question on my behalf, I can assure him, and, through him, my many friends, that I have no apprehension on the subject.