MR. J. COWENsaid, he had a Question to put to the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary of State for the Home Department with regard to the arrest of Socialists in Austria; but by some accident the Question did not appear on the Paper. He begged to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether his attention had been called to the following extract from a telegram from the Vienna correspondent of the "Daily News" of the 2nd inst.:—
During the last few days the houses of several Socialists in Vienna have been searched, and arrests have followed. This measure is connected with Herr Most's arrest in London. Letters in cipher from Vienna Socialists were found in Most's possession. The letters and the keys to them were sent from London.He wished to ask the Home Secretary if the statement there made was correct?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTSir, in answer to the Question of the hon. Member I have to state that the arrests of Socialists and other persons which are alleged to have taken place in Austria are, as I am informed, in no way connected with the proceedings against Most in England, or owing to any information derived from the English Government or the English police. But as this ques- 1841 tion has been asked, and the matter is one of great importance, it is desirable that I should state distinctly what is the view of Her Majesty's Government on this matter. For my part, I desire to say that I have never allowed myself to be the dupe of the mischievous fallacy that assassination plots by secret societies are venial crimes to be tolerated or extenuated as political offences. In my view they are ordinary murders or attempts at murders, and are to be dealt with in all respects as such. And if the police in this country, in the discharge of their ordinary duties and in the administration of English law, became acquainted with circumstances which place in danger from the hand of the assassin the life of any person, whether he be a Sovereign or a private person, whether at home or abroad, it is, in my judgment, their duty to give such information as shall be best calculated to avert the perpetration of the crime. We should have the right to expect such a course of conduct from every civilized Government if the life of our own Sovereign or our own citizens were in peril, and that which we should regard as the duty of others we shall not fail ourselves to perform.