LORD ORANMORE AND BROWNErose to call attention to the conduct of the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. W. E. Forster) in not communicating with him relative to a Question which had been asked in "another place" attacking his conduct as a landlord. The Question was, whether it was true that in a case of process-serving which had 859 lately occurred on the property of Lord Oranmore and Browne, the process-server, on arriving at the house, found the man dead, and then placed the notice on the man's dead body? Now, even if a process-server had acted in that way, he was a public officer not under his (Lord Oranmore and Browne's) control, and he could not be held responsible for what he had done. But the real facts of the case were that the poor man referred to, who had been ill for a number of years, owed him two and a-half years' rent in November, and that he had not served him with a process at all, so that the whole thing was devoid of foundation. Having sent a letter to the Chief Secretary explaining the matter, he had thought it would have been only courteous in the right hon. Gentleman in answering the Question to have read that letter to the House; but that had not been done, and that was what he chiefly complained of, seeing the matter was one which seriously reflected on his character. He had since telegraphed to the right hon. Gentleman upon the subject, and he had received a curt reply from him which, in the circumstances, he thought was extremely uncivil. He thought this matter required some explanation from the noble Earl opposite.
§ EARL SPENCERdisclaimed, on the part of his right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. W. E. Forster), any intention of being uncivil towards the noble Lord. The facts of the case were simply these. The Question which was put upon the Paper did not mention the name of the noble Lord; and his right hon. Friend, having made inquiries in Ireland, apparantly before receiving the noble Lord's letter, gave his answer upon the official information so obtained, which entirely disproved any charge against the noble Lord in regard to serving a process on a man who was lying dead. Under the circumstances, his right hon. Friend did not think it necessary to connect the noble Lord's name with the subject, and wrote to the noble Lord to that effect. There was, surely, in that proceeding, no breach of the usual courtesies of political life.
LORD ORANMORE AND BROWNEsaid, he still thought the conduct of the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland in the matter had been grossly unfair and unjust towards him.