§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been called to the reported expulsion of 40, or more, reputed Anarchists from the territories of the French Republic, and to the fact that, as the frontiers of Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Belgium are closed to them by the administrative laws of those nations, and also, to a great extent, the ports of the United States, by the Acts of Congress forbidding the immigration of undesirable aliens and artizan competitors, the United Kingdom is practically the only refuge for the rejected of Europe; and whether, having regard to their increasing numbers, he proposes to take any steps for the legislative reinforcement of the powers of the Executive in the matter? In putting this question to my right hon. Friend, I wish also to ask him if his attention has been called to the reported arrest yesterday of a Frenchman and a Portuguese with bombs upon them at the very door of the Spanish Parliament, and to the Report for 1886 of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Explosives detailing dynamite outrages in this country, or the Continent, and in America, and recommending that "as the law has signally failed it should be declared by international agreement that these attempts, like piracy, are crimes against humanity?"
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)I have no information which leads me to believe that the French Republic has 682 expelled, or is about to expel, from its territory members of the criminal classes. If there were any probability of such action on their part, and diplomatic remonstrance were not effectual to prevent it, Her Majesty's Government would not hesitate to ask Parliament for such further powers as might appear necessary. With reference to the second question added this morning, I have seen in the newspapers that a Frenchman and a Portuguese have been arrested under the circumstances mentioned. With regard to the quotation, however, from the Report of the Inspectors for 1886, I should point out that the Inspectors are not giving their own opinion, but quoting from a pamphlet written by an American citizen who felt warmly on the subject of dynamite outrages.