Nantwich, Sandbach & Crewe Star — 1890-04-19 ()

LAREN,  M.P.,  ---:0:--THE CREWS MURDER CASE  Speaking at a very largely attended ine'eting at Wheelock on Friday evening, Mr McLaren, who met with a most cordial reception, said 'he noticed a meeting of "electors," called by the Conservatives, had been held in that village a few days previously. He would not be one to place such •limitation on the attendance at 'political meetings, for he was always glad to see the ladies present—(hear, hear)—who; of course, were non-electors, and none the less pleased to see young men—in whose hands the future government of the country should lie, and who, therefore, ,hortld learn the lessons of politics before they were called upon to exercise the power of controlling polities—taking an interest in political meetings. (Cheers.) According to what had been said at that meeting by Mr Chatterton, that gentleman had either misapprehended something which he (the speaker) had said, or he had put a wrong construction upon it. He now alluded to the remarks Mr IChatterton made—with which in the main he (the speaker) agreed--regarding the unhappy decision of the Home Secretary in the case of the two boys Davies. He was pleased that Mr Chatterton agreed with him in his condemnation of the Home Secretary. (Hear, hear.) Mr Chatterton quoted his words correctly, bit he represented them as meaning that he (the speaker) suggested that it was possible to at once let loose upon society two men who had been guilty of so awful a crime. There was not the slightest indication in' anything he (Mr McLaren) said to mean that he wished those two youths te have a free pardon. When he used the word reprieve it was a word which .was well known to every lawyer, and Mr Chatterton, himself a lawyer, knew well that he meant that the boys should have -the sentence of death commuted to penal servitude for life, and that , at the end of 2p years they should be allowed a.conditions,l pardon, if they .behaved themselves: He maintained that when :they sentenced youthS of 16 and 18 years of age to penal servitude for. 20 years, and .at the end of that period, having expiated their crime by that long term of imprisonment, it was posSible for them to show by their future lives that they might be useful members of. society. (Loud ap plause.) Mr McLaren then said the Liberal party might congratulate themselves on the victory gained at Carnarvon, which showed that the Welsh people were not going to be deceived by the Tithes Bill which the Government intended to bring in. (Applause.) Speaking of the Parnell Commission, the hon. member said that in regard to all the charges which implicated Mr Parnell and the Irish members in complicity with real crime, they were completely exonerated; all the charges which were the speoial causes of the creation of the Commission had been disproved, and the Irish members were only found guilty of the minor charges. (Hear, 'hear.) 'lt was simply ridiculous to tell any intelligent audience what Mr Chatterton had said the other night, that the Irish were simply being maintained in the enjoyment of the same liberties which they enjoyed in this country, and were being coerced by a small section of Irishmen who sought to deprive them of their liberty. (Applause.) Criminals who were punished. under the Coercion Act were persons who would not be criminals in this country, and it was a great delusion to say that the Government were only coercing those criminals who sought to deprive the Irish. people of their liberty. (Loud applause.) Councillox Briggs, of Crewe, and other speakers followed.