HC Deb 24 May 1883 vol 279 cc758-60
MR. LALOR

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is true that Mr. Healy, M.P., Mr. Davitt, and Mr. Quinn, who are at present confined in Richmond Gaol, have been deprived of the usual privilege of receiving visitors, in consequence of the appearance in the newspapers of the 18th instant of letters from Messrs. Healy and Davitt in reference to the Pope's Circular; and, if it is true, whether the authorities in Ireland will regard it as a punishable offence to question the justice of the Pope's interference in the temporal affairs of that Country?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, the letters of Messrs. Davitt and Healy, which were addressed to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, were submitted on Thursday last by the General Prisons Board to the Government for instructions as to whether they might be sent on. The Government offered no objection to their being sent on, and accordingly they were posted to their destination on the same day. On the following day—Friday—they appeared in the Dublin newspapers, and on Saturday a report was received from the Prisons Board that Messrs. Healy and Davitt had sent copies of these letters for publication before authority for their despatch had been given, and that for this breach of the prison rules the privilege granted to them of seeing visitors had been suspended. Messrs. Davitt and Healy ought not to have sent copies of these letters for publication without permission, and the Prisons Board took the usual course in suspending their privileges for an infraction of the rules; but his Excellency, having regard to the fact that the issue of the letters had been allowed, ordered the suspension of their privileges to be removed. Mr. Quinn was not concerned in the matter at all, although reference is made to him in this Question.

MR. HARRINGTON

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he has any proof that the letters were brought out from the prison by visitors?

MR. TREVELYAN

There is enough proof to satisfy the Prisons Board.

MR. JOSEPH COWEN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the state of affairs in Ireland will permit of the release from prison of Mr. Healy, M.P., Mr. Davitt, and Mr. Quinn?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, this is not an ordinary case of remission of sentence, as Messrs. Healy, Davitt, and Quinn can at any moment obtain their release by undertaking to comply with the law. This, however, is not altogether a sufficient answer, because, undoubtedly, on previous occasions the Irish Government has communicated with the judicial authorities which required certain persons to keep the peace, and who, on refusing to be bound over, were committed to prison; and after negotiations with those judicial authorities, the Irish Government had brought the term of imprisonment to a close without the persons in question having consented to give bail. The Lord Lieutenant will, therefore, in this case communicate with the Judges of the Queen's Bench who passed the sentence, with a view of satisfying himself whether any action is desirable.