§ MR. GREGORYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware that a paper called "Freiheit" is printed and published in London, in which paper the assassination of the late Czar of Russia is justified and approved, and in which the destruc- 345 tion of other sovereigns of Europe is suggested; and, if he will consider whether such a publication is consistent with our International obligations to friendly States or the Law of this Country? He desired to explain that, since placing this Question upon the Paper, he had ascertained that proceedings had been taken against the editor of the paper referred to.
§ LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILLasked, Whether it was true that the editor of the Freiheit was arrested yesterday, under a warrant charging him with inciting the people of a foreign State to sedition and rebellion; and that his money, his watch, his bank book, and his letters were taken from him; if so, by whom the warrant for his arrest was issued, and whether the warrant authorized such rigorous treatment, and under what law or statute the arrest was made, and under what law or statute the police were justified in forcibly ejecting the compositors from the premises, in taking possession of the keys, and in shutting up the premises?
MR. J. COWENinquired, Whether the prosecution of the editor of the Freiheit had been undertaken by Her Majesty's Government at the request or suggestion of any foreign Government?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTSir, I will first answer the Question of the hon. Member for East Sussex (Mr. Gregory). The attention of Her Majesty's Government has necessarily been directed to the article referred to. It has been reproduced with more or less detail in most of the English and foreign newspapers. Its revolting character is universally known, and it seemed to Her Majesty's Government impossible to ignore it. I hold in my hand a translation of that article, and I am afraid I must shock the House by reading one or two sentences from it. In this article there is no circumstance of bestial ferocity absent. After describing with exultation the assassination of the Czar, it pro-ceeds—
Triumph, triumph! … The Emperor of Russia is no more … One of those brave young men who produced the revolutionary movement in Russia, Rousakoff—with reverence be his name uttered—threw a dynamite bomb under the despot's carriage, winch, indeed, did great damage to the conveyance and to its immediate neighbourhood, but left the crowned murderous thief uninjured. … Then flew another bomb. It fell at the despot's feet, 346 shattered his legs, ripped open his belly, and caused many wounds and deaths among the surrounding military and civil Cossacks. Those who witnessed the scene were paralyzed, but the energetic bomb-thrower retained his composure and happily succeeded in escaping. The Emperor was conveyed to his palace, where for an hour and a-half he was able, amid horrible sufferings, to meditate on his guilty life. At last he died—as a dog dies. … For three years has many a shot whistled past the ears of these monsters without—except in Nobiling's attempt—hurting a hair of their heads. … The other rabble, too, which in various countries pull the wires of Government mechanism for the ruling classes, experienced a powerful 'moral delirium' and melted in tears of confession, whether they were mere head lackeys on the steps of the Imperial Throne, or Republican 'regulation bandits' of the first class. The whimpering was no less in France, in Switzerland, and America than in Montenegro or Greece. A Gambetta caused the adjournment of the Chambers and thereby put an insult on France. The leaders of the ruling classes see in the successful destruction of an autocrat more than a mere act of homicide. They are in face of a successful attack upon authority as such. They all know at the same time that every success has the wonderful power of instilling respect, but of inciting to imitation. Hence they are trembling, from Constantinople to Washington, for their long forfeit heads. … What we might at any rate complain of is that so-called tyrannicide happens so seldom. If only a single crowned wretch were disposed of every month in a short time no one would any more care to play the Monarch. … Indeed, we might actually wish that it should so turn out, for we hate the hypocritical mock-liberal Monarch no less than the despots sans phrase, because the former, perhaps, have greater power of retarding the development of civilization than the latter. … Meanwhile, be this as it may, 'the throw was good,' and we hope that it was not the last.In the opinion of Her Majesty's Government it would be a grave error to regard this matter solely, or even principally, from an international point of view. It is not so much as an offence against foreign Governments, but as a domestic crime, that such publications should be dealt with. They constitute a gross and flagrant breach of our public morals. Incitements to murder, whether levelled against princes or peasants, against citizens or strangers, are like obscene libels; they attack the foundations of civil society and shock the conscience of mankind. No Government, which desires to do its duty to the society with whose safety it is charged, can tolerate the open advocacy of atrocious crimes. Those who are justly jealous of the rights of asylum will be the first to demand the punishment of its monstrous abase, which, if permitted, would de- 347 stroy the privilege. The refuge of a free State is not to be converted into a propaganda of assassination, whether at home or abroad. It is for these reasons that Her Majesty's Government have determined that the persons responsible for this infamous outrage should be dealt with according to law. That answers the Question, I think, of the noble Lord the Member for Woodstock (Lord Randolph Churchill). This prosecution is instituted upon the authority of Her Majesty's Government. I directed the matter some days ago to be placed in the hands of the Solicitors to the Treasury, who have taken, I suppose, the ordinary steps which are proper in such circumstances. In answer to the hon. Member for Newcastle (Mr. J. Cowen), I have to say that, as soon as this article came to my knowledge, without any instigation from any foreign Government, I immediately directed it to be laid before the Officers of the Crown.
§ LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILLasked the right hon. Gentleman under what statute the editor was searched, his money and watch taken from him, and the compositors ejected from the premises?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, the noble Lord would be informed of that when the indictment was preferred.
§ LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILLsaid, he considered that the right hon. Gentleman was bound to answer the Question in the House of Commons. He would repeat it to-morrow.