MR. GATHORNE HARDYsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether an application, under the hands and seals of the Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop of Meath, was made to the Lord Lieutenant in Council on the l6th day of January 1869, to divide the union of Fercal, in the diocese of Meath and province of Armagh, into four parishes or benefices, such division having been recommended by the Commissioners of Inquiry into Ecclesiastical Unions in Ireland in their Report, dated 18th April 1831; whether the Rev. Algernon Coote, the patron of the said Union, having himself moved to carry into effect such division so soon as the living fell vacant —namely, November 24th 1868—did not consent thereto; whether the Lord Lieutenant in Council has assented to the division, and if not, on what grounds his refusal has been based; and, whether there has over before been a refusal in a similar case?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, in reply, that the statements in the first two paragraphs of the Question of the right hon. Gentleman were perfectly correct. With respect to the third paragraph he had to state that the Lord Lieutenant had neither assented to nor dissented from the proposed division. The Irish Government had the matter under consideration, and when the draft Order came before the Council in the ordinary way no objection would be made to it on the part of the Lord Lieutenant.