§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the attention of the Lord Lieutenant has been drawn to the resolution of the Corofin Board of Guardians, unanimously adopted on the 15th 50 ultimo, desiring the earnest notice of His Excellency to the numerous complaints respecting the excessive judicial rents fixed by the Clare Sub-Commission; declaring the payment of the rents so fixed to be utterly beyond the power of the tenants; and desiring a thorough and searching investigation into the merits of the several cases of appeal by the tenants to the Land Commission Court of Appeal; whether an identical resolution was adopted by every Poor Law Board in county Clare, except that of Ennis, in which case the chairman, Lord Inchiquin, refused to put the motion from the chair; whether, in the case of James Griffey, of Poulnalour, Walter Russell, landlord, rent £40, although it was proved that till 1858, when Mr. Russell bought the property, the rent of the holding had been £ 17, the Sub-Commission fixed the rent at £36, the Poor Law valuation being £20; whether, in the case of three tenants in Garrynacallagha, the valuation had been £43 10s. and the rent £40, when Mr. O'Gorman bought the estate in 1853, but, by repeated notices to quit and increases on each occasion, he has raised the rent to £60, and though bog and waste lands have been taken away from the tenants since 1853, the rent of £60 has been confirmed by the Sub-Commission; whether the Lord Lieutenant has communicated with the Land Commission; and, whether care will |be taken to secure a thorough and searching inquiry into the appeals referred to in the resolution?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe resolution mentioned was adopted by the Corofin Board of Guardians. I cannot at present speak with certainty as to the other Boards. The Lord Lieutenant forwarded a copy of the resolution to the Land Commissioners. The Government could not properly interfere further in the matter, nor can I now enter into the merits of the particular cases mentioned. They are all the subject of pending appeals which will be heard by the Land. Commissioners as soon as possible, but cannot be taken out of their turn.