§ MR. BRUENasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether application was made to the Local Government Board during the months of March, April, or May 1873, to institute a prosecution against any persons on a charge of forging signatures to voting papers at the election of a poor law guardian for the electoral division of O'Brien's Bridge, in the Limerick Union; and, whether the Local Government Board refused to undertake such prosecution; and, if so, what were the grounds of the refusal?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON,in reply, said, that a case had occurred in which the attention of the Local Government Board had been directed to a charge of forging signatures to voting 1559 papers at the election in question; but the Local Government Board did not consider that they would be justified in undertaking prosecutions at the charge of funds derived from the Imperial Exchequer in cases of this kind, which were merely of local interest, and when it was open to any person able to prove the facts to proceed before the justices at petty sessions for the penalty.