§ MR. L. P. HAYDEN (Roscommon, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what instances a conviction for high treason in the British Empire has not been followed by a capital sentence?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYA conviction for high treason is always followed, under the English law, by sentence of death. To state the instances in which that sentence has not been carried out would involve a research which it is quite impossible for me to 751 undertake. I may inform the hon. Member, however, that since the last execution for high treason in 1820, 16 persons have been convicted in the United Kingdom of high treason the sentence in each case being subsequently commuted.