HC Deb 21 February 1884 vol 284 cc1590-1
MR. BIGGAR

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, What were the grounds for proclaiming the Blacklion meeting; whether the magistrates, Messrs. Boulby and Mac Ternan, had any legal authority to force their way into the private room of a hotel in the town; and, whether he approves of their conduct; and, if not, whether he will take steps to punish them for their conduct?

MR. TREVELYAN

This was a case in which a counter-demonstration on a large scale was organized, and both meetings were prohibited, because the Government was advised by experienced officers who knew the district well that the meetings, if held, could not fail to result in the gravest peril to the public peace. There was a certainty of the assemblage of very large and hostile bodies, and the physical character of the place chosen and of its surroundings was such as to make the preservation of the peace a matter of special difficulty. It was calculated that a force of at least 1,000 men would have been required, and that in a place difficult of access, and where no accommodation for them could be obtained. With regard to the indoor meeting subsequently interfered with, the magistrates who were charged with the duty of enforcing the Lord Lieutenant's Proclamation considered that they were bound to prevent the making of speeches in circumstances which would have been a practical violation of the prohibition. They felt that a meeting hold in a licensed house open to the public, with reporters present, with the doors open, and with people on the landing and stairs listening to what was said, was, to all intents and purposes, as public a meeting as if held in an open space. This was a matter as to which some discretion must be left to magistrates; and in this particular case he saw no reason for disapproving of their exercise of the discretion intrusted to them.

MR. HARRINGTON

Is the fact of a Member of Parliament replying to the toast of his health to be considered a public meeting?

MR. TREVELYAN

replied that, under all the circumstances of the case, the magistrates had exercised a wise discretion.