§ MR. O'KELLYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that Mr. John J. Began, a young man seventeen years of age, was tried, and, on the evidence of an expert, found guilty of writing a threatening letter to Mr. James Coyne, of Castlerea; whether six witnesses, well acquainted with Mr. John J. Regan's handwriting, swore the threatening letter was not written by Mr. Regan; whether, since Mr. Regan's imprisonment, Mr. Coyne has received other 1635 threatening letters, which are believed to be written by the author of the letter for the supposed writing of which Mr. Regan is now undergoing imprisonment; and, whether he will order an immediate investigation into this case?
§ MR. TREVELYANJohn J. Regan was convicted of writing a threatening letter to Mr. Coyne, a shopkeeper, in whose service he had been employed. The evidence as to identity of handwriting was that of an expert, who had compared the threatening letter with several undoubted specimens of Regan's handwriting. It is the case that six witnesses who were examined for the defence expressed a different opinion from that of the expert. Mr. Coyne has received another threatening letter since Regan was imprisoned; but the handwriting is quite dissimilar to that on account of which Regan was convicted, and there is no ground for supposing that it was written by the same person. I see no reason for ordering an investigation.