§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can now say if the prisoners James Mullett and Patrick Nally were visited by Mr. Thompson, Mr. Shannon, Mr. Walker, or any other agent on behalf of the Times, some time before their removal, as witnesses for the Times at the Royal Commission; whether each prisoner was brought into the presence of such agent without having been told the name of the agent, or the object of his visit; whether this agent promised Mullett and Nally that "each would have his liberty, and would be put into a good position besides if he consented to serve the Times;" whether he told Nally that his parents were "growing very old, and that they desired to see him before they died," and that Nally replied that "they (his parents) would rather see him a corpse than to know of him swearing falsely against anyone"; whether he is aware that the agent for the Times afterwards, in February last, went to Mrs. Mullett, wife of James Mullett, and asked her to use her influence with her husband, whom he had seen, "to swear what would be beneficial for the Times, that it would be of great benefit to 738 her and to him, and that his (Mullett's) imprisonment would then cease at once"; and, whether, considering the nature of these allegations, he will grant an independent inquiry by a Committee of Members of this House into all the circumstances in connection with these visits of agents of the Times to persons undergoing terms of imprisonment?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe General Prisons Board report that it is the case that the convict James Mullett was visited in Down patrick Prison by Mr. Shannon on the 20th and 21st of October last, but that no such visit was paid to the convict Patrick Nally. The then Governor of the Prison reports that ha announced to Mullett that Mr. Shannon, a solicitor from Dublin, was there and wanted to speak to him, and that he could see him if he wished. Mullett replied that he would hear what he had to say. The Prisons Board have no knowledge of what was said during the interviews between Mr. Shannon and Mullett, but it is obvious that no such promise could have been held out to Mullett as that indicated in the third paragraph; while as regards the alleged conversation with Nally, it would appear that he was not visited at Down patrick Prison by any person on behalf of the Times. The Government have no reason to believe that any person on behalf of the Times made the representations indicated in the fifth paragraph.