HC Deb 24 July 1890 vol 347 cc737-8
MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the charge addressed to the Grand Jury of County Antrim by Lord Justice Fitzgibbons, on Monday last, and especially to the following paragraph— The Commission, which had been opened there, included six counties: Meath, Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, Down, and Antrim. Those six counties were inhabited by 1,1150,000 people, or something more than one-fifth of the whole population of Ireland, and that one-fifth of the population appeared, from the statistics, to enjoy the advantage of occupying property of a tenement valuation exceeding £3,500,000, or, in round numbers, more than one-fourth of the whole tenement valuation of Ireland. From one end to the other of that circuit the history of crime, he was happy to say, had been the same throughout. They had literally not met with one single instance, not merely of a trial, but a report of a crime caused by combination, by conspiracy, or by intimidation, and there had not been one single charge of riot; and if he will take steps to have the valuable testimony to the condition of different parts of Ireland contained in the charges periodically delivered by the Judges laid before Parliament and preserved for future reference?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

My attention has been called to the address delivered by the learned Judge mentioned. However valuable the presentation of the addresses of the Judges might be, I fear it would be hardly practicable to carry out such a course, inasmuch as it is not the practice to have an official reporter in Court.

MR. SEXTON

Will the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant procure a copy of the charge of the Lord Chief Baron Palles to the Grand Jury at the Wicklow Assizes, and cause it to be laid on the Table?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

If an authentic copy can be obtained I will have no objection, so far as I am concerned, to its being printed. I am informed that the Lord Chief Baron always has a shorthand writer to take down his charges, but I do not know that that is the practice of other Judges. It is a question whether it would be worth while to have an official reporter present on every occasion of this sort. I do not think that it could be left to the Govern- ment to select what charges should be laid on the Table. If they laid one I think they must lay all.

MR. MACNEILL

What does the right hon. Gentleman mean by an authentic charge?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I should say an authentic charge was one taken down by a shorthand writer, and certified by the Judge to be correct.

MR. SEXTON

Do I understand that the right hon. Gentleman will apply to the Lord Chief Baron for a copy of this charge?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

Yes, Sir.

MR. DILLON

Has the right hon. Gentleman any further information to give to the House as to the extraordinary charge of Mr. Justice Harrison at Galway?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I have said that I do not think it right for me to ask questions of the learned Judge as to the course he thought it his duty to pursue on the Bench; but I have received a communication from Mr. Justice Harrison which I did not bring down with me, but which I will read to the hon. Gentleman to-morrow.