HC Deb 02 May 1881 vol 260 cc1552-3
MR. CALLAN

asked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, If his attention has been drawn to the report of the important traverse case, Finley v. Belfast Town Council, at the recent Assizes in county Antrim, in which it was given in evidence that the Corporation of Belfast entered into a secret agreement with Messrs. Hamilton and Gregg, two members of their body, Mr. Gregg being at same time a member of the Improvement Committee, to dispossess the fee simple owners of property in the Borough of Belfast, without their knowledge, and contrary to their expressed wish, by means of the compulsory purchase powers of "The Belfast Improvement Act, 1878," and to re-sell or convey by lease in perpetuity said property, or as much as they required, to said Messrs. Hamilton and Gregg, a transaction which the presiding judge, Mr. Justice Lawson, characterised in the following terms:— If there were no other element in the case than that Messrs. Hamilton and Gregg, two of the parties to the agreement, were members of the Corporation, and Mr. Gregg himself a member of the committee who entered into it, that agreement would not be worth the paper upon which it was written in a court of justice. But the case did not rest there, because there was a most extraordinary suppression of facts on the part of Mr. Gregg and Mr. Hamilton, members of the Corporation, in entering into this transaction; whether such secret agreement amounted to a criminal conspiracy; whether Mr. Gregg still continues a member of the Belfast Corporation and their Improvement Committee—Mr. Hamilton having since ceased connection with the Council; whether Mr. Gregg still remains in the Commission of the Peace for the Borough of Belfast; and, whether the Law officers of the Crown, or the Lord Chancellor, propose to take any action in connection with the matters disclosed at the hearing of this case?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. LAW)

Yes, Sir; my attention has been drawn to the newspaper reports of the trial referred to, in the course of which it appeared that an agreement somewhat of the character described had been made between the Corporation of Belfast and two of its members, but had been subsequently cancelled. The facts are complicated; but it will be sufficient for me to say that, however indefensible that agreement might have been, if it had been necessary to impeach it, the case was not one for a criminal prosecution. Mr. Gregg, I believe, still continues a member of the Corporation and its Improvement Committee, and also one of the borough magistrates of Belfast. The Law Officers do not consider it their duty to take any action in the matter.