Sir Stafford Northcote gave notice yesterday week that he would
on an early day move for a Select Committee to inquire
into all the circumstances connected with the release last May of Mr. Parnell, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. O'Kelly from prison, and to report them to the House; he would move that the Committee should be named by the Committee of Selection, and should have power to examine witnesses upon oath. On Monday, in reply to a question from Sir Stafford Northcote, Lord Hartington declined to give any of the time at the disposal of the Government for a discussion thrashed out to the last grain long ago, and on which no inquiry can throw any fresh light. It seems to us that Sir Stafford Northcote's proposal to take power to swear the -witnesses,—all the more important of whom would be, we sup- pose, Cabinet Ministers,—as if they could not be belieied on their honour, was rather an unworthy attempt to cast insinuations on his opponents. We hardly expected Sir Stafford Northcote to set the example in mud-casting of that kind.
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