MR. P. O'BRIENI beg to ask the Attorney General whether it is an indictable offence in England to encourage, persuade, or endeavour to persuade, any person or persons to murder a foreigner residing out of Her Majesty's dominions; whether any person has been tried and convicted during the past 10 years of such an offence; and what was the name of such person, the particular form of offence, and the punishment awarded to such person?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir R. WEBSTER, Isle of Wight)In answer to the hon. Member, I may say that the acts alleged in the first paragraph of his question would be an indictable offence. The matter was fully discussed in the 721 case of ''Regina v. Bernard" in the year 1858, reported in the first volume of Foster and Finlaison's Reports, at page 240; and also in the case of "Regina v. Most" in the year 1881, reported in the Law Reports at page 244 of the seventh volume of the Queen's Bench Division. Bernard was tried on a charge of murder, conspiracy to murder, and as accessory, and was acquitted. Most was tried under the Statute 24 & 25 Vict., c. 100, Section 4, and was convicted. He was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment, with hard labour.
MR. P. O'BRIENHas the attention of the hon. and learned Gentleman been drawn to the fact of the publication in the Fortnightly Review of an "Ode to Russia" by Mr. Algernon Charles Swinburne which constitutes an incitement to the assassination of the Czar, and will he advise that the writer of the ode, or the editor or publisher of the Fortnightly Review shall be prosecuted?
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!