HC Deb 19 February 1883 vol 276 cc295-6
SIR HERBERT MAXWELL

I beg to give Notice that to-morrow I shall ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether one Sheridan, described by James Carey in the course of the inquiry at the Kilmainham Court House on Saturday as having acted as intermediary between the Irish Invincibles and their allies in London, is one of the men mentioned in the negotiations that led to the release of the suspects from Kilmainham Gaol last Spring, and of whom the honourable Member for the City of Cork, before his release, said— He hoped to make use of and get him hack from abroad, as he would he able to help him to put down conspiracy or agitation, as he know all its details in the West; and, with regard to whom the Member for Bradford said in this House, on 15th May— It gave me a sort of insight into what had been happening, which I had not before, that a man (Sheridan) whom I knew, in as far as I had any possibility of knowing", was engaged in these outrages, was so far under the influence of the honourable Member for the City of Cork, that upon his release he would got the assistance of that man to put down the very things he had been provoking.

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL

On behalf of the hon. and learned Member for Chatham (Mr. Gorst), I beg to give Notice, in view of what has transpired at the Kilmainham Police Court, as an Amendment to the Address, in paragraph 10, line 4, to leave out from the word "upheld," to the end of the paragraph, in order to insert the words— And we venture to express our earnest hope that the change of policy which has produced these results will be maintained, and that no further attempts will be made to purchase the support of persons disaffected to Her Majesty's Rule, by concessions to lawless agitation, and that the existence of dangerous secret societies in Dublin and other parts of the Country will continue to be met by unremitting energy and vigilance on the part of the Executive.

SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE

I have given private Notice to the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of a Question I proposed to put to him. I do not know that it will be convenient for him to answer it now. In reference to the Notices that have been given by my Friends behind me and below me, I propose to ask him, Whether the person described by the witness James Carey, before the Court of Inquiry at Kilmainham, on Saturday last, as P. J. Sheridan, of Tubbercurry, is the same person as the Sheridan referred to in the Memorandum sent to the Prime Minister and other Members of the Government by the late Chief Secretary, at the time when the release of the "suspects" was under consideration in April last, which was read in this House on the 15th of May, 1882? If my right hon. Friend would prefer it, I will put the Question to-morrow.

MR. TREVELYAN

According to the information which the Attorney General for Ireland and myself have in the Irish Office in London, we believe Sheridan to be the same man. Absolute certainty perhaps in one sense cannot be acquired as to who any particular person referred to in any particular sentence was; but we believe that the man referred to throughout these transactions was the same.

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