§ MR. SAMUEL SMITHI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the accounts of the atrocities to which political prisoners in Siberia are subjected, and especially to the statement that several ladies attempted to starve themselves to death in order to escape the indignities heaped upon them; that one of these ladies was dogged with 100 lashes, and that afterwards she and several of her companions committed suicide by taking poison; and, whether our Ambassador at St. Petersburg could be asked, in the most friendly manner, to invite the attention of the Russian Government to the circulation of these stories, and to express a hope that steps may be taken which would enable an official contradiction to be given to them?
§ * MR. W. H. SMITHHer Majesty's Government have no means of judging of the truth of the statements to which the hon. Gentleman refers, and it is not in their power to approach the Russian Government in regard to them.