§ MR. SEXTON (Sligo, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether on the morning of the 1st of January last, Patrick Aherne, a private in the Fusiliers, stationed at Belfast, was found at an early hour lying in the barrack square in a state of insensibility; whether his teeth had been kicked out, his lip split in two, his ribs broken, and his skull fractured; whether he was carried to the Barrack Hospital, and left there with his wounds undressed and unattended to, until inquiries were made, two days after the occurrence, by Head Constable Tilson and another police officer; whether these officials were informed that nothing unusual had taken place in the barracks, and whether they learned only on the 5th or 6th of the same month, from the undertaker's man, that a soldier (Aherne) had died from the effects of violence; whether it is a fact that no inquest was held, that the dying man's depositions were not taken, and that the civil authority was not called in; and, whether the resident magistrates failed to perform their duty in not causing an investigation to be held, and what account they 1174 give of the case, and their course in reference to it?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)Owing to some discrepancies in the information which I have received I shall have to make further inquiries, and I will ask the hon. Member kindly to put down his Question again for Tuesday.