§ MR. W. A. MACDONALD (Queen's County, Ossory)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is true, as stated in the Standard of Saturday, that the first intimation of the reprieve granted to Mrs. May brick was conveyed to Liverpool in an unofficial newspaper telegram at seven o'clock on Thursday evening, but that—
Nothing was received at Walton Gaol until the small "hours of Friday morning, When a 593 Queen's messenger knocked up the Governor, and delivered his message;whether it was originally intended that the decision should first be communicated to the Governor of the gaol; why this arrangement was departed from; and, if he will explain why an official telegram was not sent to the Governor announcing the commutation of the sentence, and the fact that a messenger was following with the formal document?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have no information as to the newspaper telegram referred to, which was not of official origin. It is the fact that the Queen's messenger bearing the reprieve arrived at the prison at midnight. It is the practice that the official intimation of a reprieve shall reach the Government in the first instance. This practice was not departed from on this occasion. I thought it preferable that the information should be conveyed in a written form by a Queen's messenger, and not by means of a telegram.