§ MR. NAOROJI (Finsbury, Central)I beg to ask the Attorney General if he has recently received any communication or affidavit from Colonel Edward Mitchell, R.E., retired, denying the accuracy of the statement made in the House of Commons on the 9th December, 1890, by the then Attorney General, in reply to Mr. Cunninghame Graham, that the Crown did not press for the costs of the proceedings out of consideration of Colonel Mitchell, and at his request, on the distinct arrangement in writing that Colonel Mitchell's supposed claim should not again be raised in any shape; whether the gallant officer has appealed to him to cause justice to be done; whether he has forwarded to him a certificate of a learned Queen's Counsel on the subject; and 554 whether he will lay the Papers upon the Table of the House?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir J. RIGBY,) ForfarI have received communications from Colonel Mitchell, including an affidavit, on the subject mentioned in the question. Whether such an arrangement as is mentioned was actually entered into depends entirely upon the correspondence which my right hon. Friend the Secretary for War has already promised to lay upon the Table, together with a relevant portion of the affidavit. I think that these Papers include everything material. The certificate of counsel referred to has nothing to do with this arrangement. I have already stated to Colonel Mitchell, and to the hon. Gentleman who puts the question, and it is the fact, that I have no power to reopen the claim of Colonel Mitchell.