§ MR. MOLLOYI beg to draw the attention of the Chief Secretary to the 947 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the following extract from a memorial dated the 10th instant, signed by the vicars generals and priests of the deanery of Birr, and forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant, viz.:—
May it please Your Excellency,—We, the priests of the deanery of Birr, have been surprised and pained by the proclamation of the baronies of Ballybrit and Clonlisk, in the King's County, under the Act for the Preservation of Life and Property in Ireland. As your Excellency must know, we are more intimately acquainted than others with the real state of the Country and the feelings and conduct of the people, and we have no hesitation in stating that nothing has occurred in the aforesaid baronies to justify the Government in the extreme course they have taken. Reports of outrages have, indeed, been industriously circulated by newspapers opposed as well to Her Majesty's Liberal Government as to the public opinion of the Country. In nearly every instance these reports, to our knowledge, were either totally without foundation or grossly exaggerated;and to ask, If he will inform the House of the cause of such proclamation; and if he will now make strict inquiries into the truthfulness of the reports upon which such proclamation was made?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERI can only state that the Government, after grave consideration, and acting on their own responsibility, for the prevention of crime and outrage, thought it necessary to take the course they have taken with regard to the two baronies mentioned.