LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. PLUNKETT AND THE IRISH PRISONERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR:9
Sin,—In the Spectator of February 22nd, referring to the part which I took in the debate on Mr. Harrington's amendment in favour of amnestying the dynamite prisoners, you say, "In this he was suppotted on Monday by Mr. Horace Plaukett, who argued, as we think with doubtful wisdom, that with a Unionist party in office with a majority of 150, the situation was entirely changed." The reports of private Members' speeches are necessarily condensed, and when they have them- selves been at pains to condense their arguments, the further condensation often lands them in what you leniently describe as " doubtful wisdom."
My case was that the nine so-called political prisoners were tried in 1883 under the Treason Felony Act, which was passed in 1848 to deal with seditious writings and speeches. The accused would have been tried under the Explosive Sub- stances Act, which had recently been passed to deal with the abominable crime with which they were charged, had it not been that existing social and political conditions in Ireland rendered exemplary punishment necessary for the public safety. These conditions having happily disappeared, and the prisoners—most of them, at any rate—having, in my belief, served the full term which would have been inflicted for their felony, and now serving an added term in respect of their treason, might fairly be placed in the same position which they would have occupied if they had been tried under the more appropriate Act in ordinary times.
You will therefore see that the sentence you quoted was, taken by itself, baldly a fair representation of the case I submitted for the consideration of the House. It was, how.
ever, not irrelevant to point out that, as the exercise of the clemency of the Crown must have regard to the moral effect
which would be produced on the public mind, this concession by a Government with a majority of 150 at its back would be less open to misconstruction than that of a Government whose very existence depended upon the goodwill of the political party which was agitating for the release of the
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