§ Viscount Bernardwished to ask the noble Secretary for Ireland a question with respect to an outrage that was recently committed in Galway. It appeared that a party of Protestants were quietly enjoying themselves at a place on the sea-coast, when they were suddenly attacked by a number of people in boats, without any provocation, and were very much ill-treated. He begged to ask the noble Lord whether the stipendiary magistrate had made a report of the case? and, if so, whether that report proved that the attack was premeditated and unprovoked.
§ Lord Eliotanswered, that the matter was inquired into by Mr. Gore Jones, the stipendiary magistrate, and by Messrs. Trevor and Thomas, two other magistrates. They had instituted an immediate inquiry into the subject, and the result of the investigation had been that the attack was most wanton and unprovoked. The people thus assailed were proceeding on a party of pleasure, they were not playing party tunes, nor were they acting in any way offensively; and the Government was perfectly at a loss to discover any motive for the cruel and unprovoked attack that was made on them. The magistrates were making the most strenuous efforts to secure the offenders; and, though they were not yet taken, he hoped that they would speedily be in custody. He 702 regretted extremely that party feeling, which he hoped was almost extinct, should have shown itself on this occasion.