§ MR. SEXTONasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, If it is the fact that a young man named Payne, servant to a justice of the peace in the county of Wicklow, and who had formerly been in the employment of Mr. Gustavus Cornwall, Ex-Secretary to the Post Office, was committed to Wicklow Gaol, after a magisterial investigation, in camerâ, to take his trial for a felonious offence; whether the principal witness against him came over from Wales to give evidence, but was informed by the police at Newtown Mount Kennedy that he was not wanted; whether it is the fact that when the case was called on the Crown entered a nolle prosequi; and, 899 if he can state the reason why the prosecution was not proceeded with?
§ THK SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)A man named Payne was returned for trial to the Wicklow Assizes; but on the information being laid before the Attorney General, he was of opinion that no offence was disclosed by them on which a prosecution could be sustained. A bill was found against the same man for a minor offence; but the prosecuting counsel considered that the case was not one in which the Crown should proceed, and the Attorney General saw no reason to disapprove of the judgment exercised by them at the Assizes. No one connected with the prosecution knows or has heard that the man had been in the employment of Mr. Cornwall, and the first suggestion of it, so far as is known, appears in the Question.