HC Deb 01 July 1861 vol 164 cc112-3
MR. VINCENT SCULLY

said, he rose to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland Whether his attention has been called to the published Address of the Chairman of the County of Tipperary (Mr. Sergeant Howley, Q.C.) to the Grand Jury at the recent Quarter Sessions of Cashel, with reference to a Document directing that cases of Faction Fighting shall no longer be tried at the Quarter Sessions, but sent to the Assizes; and whether he will state the nature of that Document, and the grounds for it?

MR. ROEBUCK

rose to order. He did not think that any question asked ought to contain an insinuation which could not be answered. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Cardwell) was asked to state the grounds on which a certain document had been issued. Now, if those grounds were wrong the House had no opportunity of expressing an opinion on them.

MR. VINCENT SCULLY:

I rise to order.

MR. SPEAKER:

The hon. Member is in order.

MR. ROEBUCK

thought he was quite right. The right hon. Gentleman ought not to be called upon to state the grounds upon which the document was issued unless an opportunity were given to the House to state its opinions upon them. He asked whether the question was in order?

MR. VINCENT SCULLY:

I totally repudiate that I intend to cast any insinuation whatever.

MR. SPEAKER:

As a question of order the hon. Member has a right to put his question. In what manner the right hon. Gentleman may think fit to reply is another matter. But I cannot say that there is anything in the question to prevent its being put. It is impossible for me to interpose on the present occasion on a point of order.

MR. CARDWELL

said, the document, referred to was a Circular which the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, acting upon the advice of the Law Officers of the Crown, had forwarded to the Justices of Quarter Sessions. There was no intention of showing the slightest disrespect to the Justices of Quarter Sessions; but it was thought better, for the interests of justice, that persons concerned in faction fighting should be tried by a Jury selected from a wider area at the Assizes than by one drawn from the narrower area of the district in which the occurrence took place.