REPORT. (Hansard, 9 July 1857)

§ MR. SCHOLEFIELD
reported from the Select Committee appointed to try and determine the matter of the Petition of George Gore Ouseley Higgins, complaining of an undue Election and Return for the County of Mayo; That two Letters addressed to Colonel Higgins, and duly verified, had been produced before the Committee, alleging that one of the witnesses, John M'Laughlin, examined before the said Committee, had been maltreated; and another witness, John Gannon, had been so seriously injured by a mob, led on by one John Sheridan, that his life is in danger, such maltreatment and injury having been inflicted upon them in consequence of evidence given before the said Committee: The Committee have therefore instructed him to report the circumstances to the House, in order that the House may take such steps as may seem to the House to be proper and necessary.

§ MR. WALPOLE
Before proceeding to the orders of the day, I wish for a moment to call the attention of the House to the Report which has just been presented by the Chairman of the Election Committee of the county of Mayo. I understand from that Report that evidence has been produced before the Committee to the effect that two letters have been addressed to Colonel Higgins, stating that one of the witnesses, named John M'Laughlin, who was examined before the Committee, had been severely beaten, and that another witness, named John Gannon, had been so seriously maltreated by a mob, led on by one John Sheridan, that his life was in danger. The Report states that this maltreatment was represented to have been inflicted in consequence of the evidence which the witnesses in question gave before the Committee. As the Report is drawn that appears to be the allegation; but no particular proof of the maltreatment 1168 has been produced at present before the Committee. I think, however, that the House having had its attention called to the facts, should not leave the matter where it is without some inquiry on the subject, and probably under the circumstances, the best course that I can adopt is to obtain information from the Attorney General for Ireland as to whether any intelligence has reached him with reference to these proceedings, and if it have, whether he has taken, or is prepared to take, any steps in consequence of such intelligence.

§ MR. J. D. FITZGERALD
In answer to the question of the right hon. Gentleman, I should state, for the information of the House, that, having in the course of the day heard of the production of the letters referred to before the Committee upstairs, my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary for Ireland communicated at once by telegraph to the Under-Secretary at Dublin, and that he received a message in reply, stating that an outrage such as that described in the letters had been committed, and that two persons had been beaten severely; but the cause of the beating did not appear. It seems that the local authorities had acted immediately on the occurrence of the violence, the stipendiary magistrate on the spot having arrested nine persons charged with being participators in the outrage, and that those nine persons are now in custody. As I was expected to be in Dublin to-morrow the papers have been left there awaiting my consideration, and I hope to be in Dublin to-morrow morning. It appears that the assizes for the county of Mayo commence this day week, and I apprehend that there will be no difficulty in placing those persons on their trial at the approaching assizes, and, if guilty, of bringing them speedily to justice, and I need not state that the penalty which the law inflicts for such an offence is very severe indeed. In the meantime I think that the interposition of the House would be productive of great inconvenience, by interfering with the regular course of the administration of justice. Besides, we have at present no evidence with which we can deal—it is a mere allegation contained in the letters—and the offence, so far as this House is concerned, would be, not the outrage on the individuals, but the fact that that outrage was committed in consequence of the evidence which they 1169 gave before a Committee. That would be a somewhat difficult subject to inquire into at the Bar of the House, and possibly we should be able to arrive at no satisfactory conclusion. In the meantime the law is strong enough to reach eases of this description, and to punish those who commit such outrages, and I will take care, if these persons be guilty, that the law shall be put speedily in force.