On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. J. O'Connor raised in Supply the
question of the treatment of the dynamite prisoners, in a rambling speech of two hours' duration. According to him, the authorities of the gaol in which they are confined have entered into a conspiracy to administer the prison rules in such a way as to make them positive instruments of torture. The convicts were punished, he declared, for com- plaining of the warders' bad language and of the banging of the doors at night, which deprived them of their sleep. Further, Mr. O'Conner brought up the old story that Daly was poisoned by an overdose of belladonna, administered either " through deliberate ill-treatment " or " culpable negligence." Mr. Matthews had little difficulty in show- ing that the allegation of a conspiracy to ill-treat the prisoners was preposterous nonsense. A committee had sat on the belladonna incident, and found that the overdose was due to an accident which might easily have occurred in private practice,—the wholesale druggist having supplied a tincture far above the ordinary strength. Mr. O'Connor, in pleading for the prisoners' release, reminded. the House that the exiled Communists had been allowed to return home. That is true ; but then the Communists, though insurgents, were brave men who risked their lives for a cause in which they believed. The dynamiters, on the other hand, like to skulk in safety while their infernal machines are blowing innocent women and children to pieces. It is quite right to forget political crimes as soon as it is safe to do so, but not outrages against humanity.
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