§ MR. BRADYsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Why the Government did not prosecute constable Richard Jennings, against whom informations were sworn by six persons charging him with endeavouring to dissuade Hugh M'Carten from giving evidence on the trial of Francis Cannon, who was charged, on the evidence of the said constable, with an indictable misdemeanour at the last Spring Assizes for the county of Leitrim, and acquitted by the Jury, who stopped the case with the sanction of the Judge; and whether Jennings is to continue in the Police Force, and whether it is advisable that, under existing circumstances, his father should continue to do duty in the Police Force of the county of Leitrim?
LORD NAAS, in reply, said, he would state briefly the facts of the case. On the 14th of August an outrage was committed near Moville, in the county Leitrim, by the maiming of a number of cattle belonging to different persons, the tails of such cattle having been cut off. Sub-constable Jenning stated to his superior officer he had reason to believe that this outrage had been perpetrated by a man named Cannon. A search was accordingly made in Cannon's house, and it was alleged that the number of cows' tails had been discovered in a loft of the said house, and the result was that Cannon was indicted for the offence, and subsequently tried and acquitted. The case was submitted to the Law Officer of the Crown, who decided that there was not sufficient evidence in his opinion against the sub-constable Jennings to put him on his trial for perjury; but it was competent for Canning's friends, who were persons of sufficient means, to institute such proceedings if they thought flt. They, however, declined to do so, and on the termination of the Assizes the Inspector General of the Constabulary had no other course to take but to restore Jennings to his former position, which he had since done.