GREAT BRITAIN.                          
     481

                                   [Inclosure 4 in No. 47T2]

                          Lord Granville to General Schewck.

                                                   FOREIGN OFFICE, July 31,
1873.
   SIR: With reference to my note of the 2d ultimo as to the deportation
of released
 convicts and paupers from this country to the United States, I have the
honor to trans-
 mit to you herowith, for your information, a copy of a letter from the Irish
govern-
 ment, with the accompanying reports from the Irish convict-prisons and local
govern-
 ment board departments, upon this subject, which I have 'received from Her
Majesty's
 secretary of state for the home department.
       I have, &c.,
                                                                   GRANVILLE.


                               [Inclosure 1 in 4 in No. 472.]

                            Mr. Hartington to Mr. Liddell.

                                                      IRISI OFFICE, July
12, 1873.
   SIR: Referring to your letter of the 6th ultimo, I am directed by the
lord lieuten-
 ant to transmit to you, for the information of Mr. Secretary Bruce, copies
of reports
 which have been received from the convict-prisons and local government board
depart-
 ments upon the alleged deportation of released convicts and of their families
from Ire-
 land to America, and to state that his excellency trusts that these explanations
will
 be considered satisfactory. I am to add that Bryan Fitzgerald was ordered
to be re-
 leased on license by the late Sir Mazierre Brady, when acting as one of
the lords jus-
 tices of Ireland during the temporary absence of the lord lieutenant in
July, 1870.
   His excellency desires me to assure you that he would emphatically condemn
and do
 all in his power to discountenance, any system, upon the part of- the local
authorities
 in Ireland, by which it is proposed to make the United States a place of
banishment or
 settlement for paupers of the United Kingdom, and he has himself constantly
refused
 to commute the sentence of convicts when they have applied for commutation
on the
 ground that they wished to go to America.
   His excellency will be prepared, upon the application of the American
minister, to
put a stop, as far as lies in his power, to the practice of affording emigration
assistance
to actual paupers; but he trusts the American minister will readily recognize
the dif-
ficulty of preventing convicts released on license from leaving the country,
especially
if they have earned a sufficient gratuity by their labor and conduct to enable
them to
do so, and are actuated to emigrate by the praiseworthy motive of avoiding
their
former haunts and associates and beginning an honest career in a new country.
       Jam, &c.,
                                                               J. HARTINGTON.


                              [Inclosure 2 in 4 in No. 472.]
                              Mr. Barlow to Mr. Burke.

                                              GOVERNMENT PRISONS OFFICE,
                                                      Dublin Castle, June
17, 1873.
  SiRp: With reference to your memorandum of the 10th instant, on the letter
of the
Right Hon. Mr. Secretary Bruce, I beg to report as follows, with reference
to extract
from a dispatch from his excellency the United States minister forwarded
therewith:
  Bryan Fitzgerald was convicted in the county Kerry, in October, 1857, of
burglary
and larceny; he had been previously convicted, and was sentenced to fifteen
years'
penal servitude. A portion of this sentence was served at Spike Island prison,
and in
Octeber, 1867, he was removed to Mountjoy male prison.   On the 4th December,
1869, he was removed to Dundrum criminal lunatic asylum; from the asylum
he was
sent back to Mountjoy prison in February, 1870, and in July, 1870, he was
released on
license, the late Mr. P. J. Murray having certified that his conduct had
been good for
over two years, and the prisoner having served nearly three years over the
usual period
for a prisoner of his sentence.
  If the information to which his excellency the American minister refers
came from
Bryan Fitzgerald, it should be received with the utmost caution, as his conduct
since
his release has proved hiM to be a designing and dangerous character.
  I attach a copy of the license handed to Fitzgerald, from which it will
appear that
no such condition as Fitzgerald's leaving for America was made, nor could
Fitzgerald
have been forced to leave Ireland having such a document in his possession.
I have
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