§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the Secretary for Scotland if he will take into favourable consideration the remission of the sentence of three years' penal servitude now being served by John Maclean, in Peterhead prison, for alleged seditious political utterances, in view of the severity of the sentence and the much lighter sentences 1887W which have been passed for similar and more serious offences in England and Wales, and in view of the character of the police evidence on which Maclean's conviction was secured?
§ Mr. TENNANTNo, Sir; I cannot undertake to give any promise of remission on either of the grounds stated, and I must enter a protest against the suggestion implied in the concluding portion of the question.