§ MR. COX (Clare, E.)said, he wished to draw the attention of the House to the proclamation of the Ballycoree meeting. The right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. A. J. Balfour) and the right hon. and learned Gentleman the Attorney General for Ireland (Mr. Gibson) had said, with a good deal of emphasis, that they were justified in proclaiming the meeting, because notices appeared in the streets of Ennis calling on the people to remember Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien. He (Mr. Cox) would ask the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary was he aware of the fact that last November, when the present Government was in Office, one of the greatest meetings held in Clare, and perhaps in the South of Ireland, was held in Ennis for the purpose of unveiling a monument to the Manchester Martyrs; that it was summoned by placard; that it was attended by at least 30,000 people with bands and banners; that Mr. John O'Leary, an ex-Fenian prisoner, and other extreme politicians in Ireland addressed the meeting, and the Government did not think it right or necessary, considering 493 the condition of the county, to proclaim or suppress that meeting, although, according to the cooked statistics got up for the purposes of the right hon. Gentleman, the county was in a more disturbed condition than now? If the Government could justify the proclamation of the Ballycoree meeting by the appearance of a notice asking the people to remember Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien, why did they not suppress the meeting specially convened to do honour to those martyrs? The people of Ireland believed that the reason of the Government in not proclaiming the meeting was, by bringing police and military into Ennis, to try and provoke the people to crime. It was only by the people of Ireland resorting to crime and outrage that the present Government could continue in Office, or justify themselves before the people of England. The efforts of the Irish Members would be directed during the coming winter to trying to prevent the people from falling into the net spread for them by the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant. There was another reason for proclaiming the meeting. It was announced that his hon. Friend the Member for Wednesbury (Mr. Philip Stanhope) would speak at the meeting, and this invasion of Ireland by English Members was filling the Government with dread. The Government could not prevent Englishmen from going to Ireland and seeing with their own eyes the real condition of the people. The right hon. Gentleman had reason to fear the English invasion of Ireland more than the threatened Fenian invasion of some years ago. For every meeting in Clare that the Chief Secretary proclaimed they would hold not one meeting, but a dozen meetings if necessary. The noble Lord the Member for South Paddington (Lord Randolph Churchill), speaking last night, said the Government had every reason to be satisfied at the result of the Ennis meeting. He (Mr. Cox) wished them joy of their satisfaction; and, speaking on behalf of the people of Clare, he could tell them that they were satisfied also, for they held three meetings instead of one. So far as the general conduct of the police was concerned he had nothing to complain of; but he did not thank the rank and file for that, and though it might not be to the advantage 494 of any Government official in Ireland to receive praise from an Irish Nationalist, yet he (Mr. Cox) considered he would not be doing his duty if he did not declare his firm conviction to be that the streets of Ennis would have run red with blood that Sunday only for Colonel Turner, R.M., and the County Inspector, who were the two officers in charge. Colonel Turner since he had come to Clare had exercised his duty with a firm hand; but he had shown the people also that he was not going to resort to the brutality which characterized other police officers in Ireland. But what he (Mr. Cox) wanted to do was to call the attention of the House to the conduct of a junior officer and a constable. He saw with his own eyes—while he was standing at his hotel door—a party of Infantry come down the street, and the people, as they invariably do, cheered them loudly. The soldiers were followed by a force of police, who were groaned at by the people on the pathway, for they had a perfect right to groan at them, considering the treatment they received at their hands. There was no one standing in the streets, and no kind of obstruction was offered to the police; but a young officer, hearing the groaning, left the ranks and stepped two yards out of his way to get on the pavement and to shove an inoffensive man off into the road. A sub-constable, taking the cue from his superior officer, immediately took hold of the man by the back of the neck and arrested him on the spot. The man was being marched off in the midst of the police when he (Mr. Cox) jumped off a car and threatened that if the man were not immediately released he would take the parties concerned before the County Inspector. Getting alarmed at this, the sub-constable let the man go and slunk back to his place. Had he (Mr. Cox) not been there, and had he not, so to speak, arrested the police officer, this man would have been marched off to prison, would have been brought before a magistrate, and, no doubt, have got two or three months' imprisonment for assaulting the police. That was the sort of police law which they bad to contend with in Ireland, and he believed that the police had secret orders from Dublin to provoke the people as much as possible. With regard to the melancholy occurrence that had taken place in Clare during the past 495 few days, he wished to express his regret at the death of Head Constable Whelehan. He did it the more honestly and genuinely because he had known Head Constable Whelehan well; and he could tell the Government that if they had many such police officers in their employment in Ireland they would not be so hated and detested and despised as they were to-day. He (Mr. Cox) saw the conduct of poor Whelehan all through the Bodyke evictions, and he knew him to be deservedly popular in Ennis; but, while he felt it his duty to say that much of a deserving officer, there were other features of the Moonlighting outrage which were very suspicious, and deserved explanation. When the truth of that outrage came to be known it would be discovered that the unfortunate dupes of Moonlighters were not so much to blame—though he could not deny that they had the blood of the unfortunate Head Constable on their heads—as others behind the scenes. There was a notorious character in Clare—another Head Constable—Head Constable Maurice O'Halloran—who differed very widely from the man that was dead; and it might be considered a heartless and bloodthirsty thing for him (Mr. Cox) to say that if the man had met the fate of Head Constable Whelehan he would not stand up in his place in the House to say one word of regret for his death. It was well known in Clare that this man O'Halloran was travelling night and day out of uniform giving blood money and promoting and encouraging outrage and crime throughout the length and breadth of the county, His conduct was recently brought under the notice of this House, and it was proved that he wrote a letter in his (Mr. Cox's) name sending £10 to a man for the purpose of promoting and concocting outrages in Clare. The statement in The Standard needed some explanation—namely, that the Constabulary were warned by an anonymous letter that an organized attack was to be made on Sexton's house; and he believed that if the truth was ever known it would be found that these unfortunate Moonlighters at Lisdoonvarna were but the dupes of this man and of others. Wherever O'Halloran had gone his footsteps had been dogged by crime and outrage; and so long as that man was allowed to go about Clare crime 496 would flourish in the county. It was passing strange that wherever this man O'Halloran went there were crimes and outrages, which ceased as soon as he left for a fresh district. It was a monstrous thing that the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary should get up in the House and justify that man's conduct. Until O'Halloran was punished the people of Clare would believe that the Government were parties to his nefarious practices.