§ MR. W. JOHNSTONasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If he will state to the House the cause of the delay which took place in the production before the coroner of one of the persons accused of the recent Holywood murders, and explain the reason why the coroner was compelled to adjourn for a week the inquest on the bodies of Isabella Ker and Jane Toner, and make application to the Court of Queen's Bench for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the attendance of certain witnesses from the county Antrim?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONCharlotte Raw, the accused person referred to in the Question, was arrested upon the 4th of January last. The inquest had been commenced on the 31st of December, and adjourned from the 1st to the 8th of January. When the inquest was resumed upon the 8th, Charlotte Raw was in custody under a warrant of remand issued by Mr. O'Donnell, R.M. While this warrant remained in force the gaoler could not legally act upon any order of the coroner for the production of the prisoner. Mr. O'Donnell signed a discharge of Charlotte Raw from custody under his warrant on the 8th or 9th of January, and she was then produced before the coroner. As to the second part of the Question, the wit- 897 nesses referred to were prisoners who were in custody in the gaol of the county Antrim under magistrates' warrants upon a charge of being accessory to the murder. There was no legal mode of bringing these persons before the coroner, save under a writ of habeas corpus. Upon the adjournment of the inquest, Mr. Murland, the Crown Solicitor—who had been pressed to direct the discharge from custody of these persons in order that they might be produced as witnesses before the coroner, and who had most properly declined to do so—moved for and obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Queen's Bench, under which they were produced and examined before the coroner. As Charlotte Raw and her sister are at present in Downpatrick Gaol, awaiting their trial on the charge of murder, it is inexpedient to state anything further in relation to the inquest, save that the action of Mr. Murland, the Crown Solicitor, has the entire approval of the Attorney General for Ireland, under whose direction he attended at the, inquest.