§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India a question of which I have given him private notice, namely, whether, having regard to the circumstances attending the retrial, conviction, and execution for murder in Oudh of natives previously acquitted, and the refusal to forward the appeal of the convicts to the Government of India for the revision or commutation of the sentence, the Under-Secretary will be prepared to say, on the Motion for the Adjournment of the House to-night, if it is the intention of the Secretary of State to advise that the penal code of India be modified so as to secure that the plea of previous acquittal on the same charge may be made available in the case of natives as it is in the case of Europeans, and that the procedure in trial for murder in India will be assimilated in the case of natives to that of Europeans?
§ Mr. MONTAGUI have assumed that my hon. and learned Friend intends by the question with customary consideration to indicate to me part of his argument in the Debate he proposes to raise to-night, and part of the reply he wishes me to make. I note the terms of the question, and I hope he will not press me to try and argue a very grave and difficult matter in an answer to a question.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLWill the hon. Gentleman take care that I am not counted out?