HC Deb 11 June 1902 vol 109 cc358-60
MR. JAMES O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether it is true that Mr. Lynch, the Member for Galway, has been arrested.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I have heard a rumour to that effect, but I have no official cognisance of it.

Mr. REDDY (King's Co., Birr)

Is that part of the celebration of the Coronation ceremony?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

My right hon. friend the Home Secretary tells me that Mr. Lynch has been arrested.

MR. JAMES O' KELLY

May I ask whether Mr. Lynch has not the same right to surrender as any other burgher?

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order!

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

He is not a burgher.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

Why, if he has been arrested, has not that arrest been communicated to the House in proper form by a Message from the Crown?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

That is not a Question to be addressed to me.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

Then I address the Question to the Home Secretary, who must be cognisant of it. I ask, first of all, on what charge Mr. Lynch has been arrested, and, if it is a charge of high treason, why it is not communicated by a Message from the Crown.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. RITCHIE,) Croydon

I believe that Mr. Lynch will be at Bow Street today, and it will be public property why he has been arrested and what the charge is that is made against him. It is not my business to make any communication to the House.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

On a point of practice, Mr. Speaker, may I ask whether, when a Member is arrested on a criminal charge at the suit of the Crown, as distinct from a private prosecution, it is not the bounden duty of a Minister to communicate the arrest to the House by a Message from the Crown?

MR. SPEAKER

I will not say that it is the bounden duty, but I think it is the usual practice to write a letter to the Speaker informing him of the arrest of a Member.

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

In reference to that, is it not the practice that that communication should be given, not so much to you, Mr. Speaker, as to the House, and that it should be given at the bar by a Minister of the Crown as a Message from the Crown? The last occasion was that of Mr. William Smith O'Brien, and in that case the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland himself, as representing the Crown, wrote to Mr. Speaker; but in ordinary cases of anything like seditious offences I submit to you that the practice is that the Home Secretary, as the Minister of the Crown who is responsible, should go to the bar and tell the House by means of a Message from the Crown.

MR. SPEAKER

I observe that the hon. Member has had to go back more than fifty years for a precedent. I cannot say that there is an ordinary practice such as he describes.

MR. JAMES O'KELLY

May I ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether Mr. Lynch is not entitled to the same treatment as if he were in the Boer Army.

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! That appears to me to be a question of argument or of opinion. It is not a Question to be addressed to a Minister.

MR. JAMES O'KELLY

Is it not a Question affected by the terms of the treaty of peace?

MR. SPEAKER

It is not a Question to be asked at Question time. It is not a Question to a Minister on a matter of fact.

MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)

May it not be in order to address a Question to the Minister to ask him whether it is intended to extend to Mr. Lynch the same terms of surrender as have been extended to the Cape Dutch?

MR. SPEAKER

I do not think the hon. Member's Question is in order. If he thinks he can frame a Question which is in order I shall consider it, and certainly shall not reject it unless I think that it is clearly improper.