§ Mr. Sharman Crawfordrose for the purpose of putting a question to the noble Secretary for Ireland, of which he had given notice. It related to the ejectment of 225 families at Knockhall and Renefarna, but he had since understood that the property was not that of the Marquess of Westmeath, as he had supposed. He wished to know whether the police had been called in on that occasion, and whether the dispossessment had actually taken place, which he had seen noticed in several of the Irish newspapers?
§ Lord Eliotobserved, that as the question had arisen out of what the hon. Member had seen stated in the newspapers, he might, perhaps, be excused for reading an extract from one of them as his reply. In the Dublin Evening Post, of March the 14th, he read as follows:—
EJECTION OF TENANTRY.—Having copied the statement referred to in the subjoined extract from the Roscommon Journal, it is due to Lord Westmeath that we should now publish the contradiction:—We were misinformed with respect to Knockhall and Renefarna being the property of the Marquess of Westmeath. That extensive ejection of tenantry was carried into effect by a Roman Catholic landlord! However, we are delighted to learn, from a respectable gentleman iu that neighbourhood, that Mr. Hanly, the newly-declared tenant, has humanely restored every one of the creatures to their former occupancy.'The only official report he had received upon the subject was from the inspector of police, which stated—On March 2, sub-inspector Blakeney, with thirty-two constabulary, attended, at the requisition of the sub-sheriff, on the lands of Knockhall, parish of Kilglass. The sub-sheriff took possession of houses and lands without any 1126 resistance on the part of the peasantry. On the next day the police again attended, when the sub-sheriff permitted them to return to their quarters, owing to the assurance of the persons to be dispossessed that they would offer no resistance, he finished his duty and met with no opposition. The persons dispossessed were immediately after put into possession of their holdings on attornment to their landlords.He had no doubt of the correctness of the statement, and it would be recollected that it was the duty of the police to act on the requisition of the sub-sheriff.