HC Deb 16 April 1888 vol 324 cc1330-1
MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)

said, he perhaps might be permitted, without Notice, to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the hon. Member for North-East Cork (Mr. W. O'Brien) had been arrested for attending on the 8th instant at Loughrea a meeting in a proclaimed district; if so, whether a warrant had been issued for the arrest of the hon. Member for the Holmfirth Division of West Yorkshire (Mr. H. J. Wilson); and, if not, why a distinction was made by the Government between the identical action of an English and of an Irish Member?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)

I think the hon. Gentleman should have given me Notice of the Question. I can assure him that if any English Member has, taking all the circumstances into account, done the same thing as an Irish Member, he will be in precisely the same position.

MR. LABOUCHERE

said, the right hon. Gentleman had not answered the Question as to why the hon. Member had been arrested.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

No doubt, a warrant was issued on account of what the hon. Member did at Loughrea last Sunday.

MR. LABOUCHERE

But would the right hon. Gentleman be good enough to specify whether it was for attending the meeting; or whether it was for words used by him when at the meeting?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I do not think it would be desirable that I should make a speech for the prosecution in this House.

MR. BUCHANAN (Edinburgh, W.)

The right hon. Gentleman can state whether the warrant was made out against the hon. Member for making a speech at Loughrea; or whether it was for attending the meeting?

[No reply.]

MR. JAMES STUART (Shoreditch, Hoxton)

I think, Sir, that when a Member of this House has been arrested we have a right to press for information as to why he has been arrested.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I beg the hon. Gentleman's pardon; I thought I had explained that the hon. Member for North-East Cork has been arrested for inciting to, and taking part in, an illegal assembly. I have not got the exact terms of the warrant.