MR. SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been called to the language used by the Eight Hon. Mr. Justice Fitzgerald, in his charge to the Grand Jury of the county Kerry, as to the alarming increase of drunkenness as revealed on the calendar, to which cause he attributed nine-teen-twentieths of the whole crime on Irish calendars; whether Mr. Baron Dowse, at the Westmeath Assizes, made a like complaint, declaring that, whether by Permissive Bill, Sunday closing, or other means, something should be done to arrest such a spreading source of crime; whether Lord Chief Justice Whiteside, at County Meath Assizes, and Mr. Justice Keogh, at County Tyrone, have not raised like complaints; and, whether the Grand Juries of Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, Westmeath, Sligo, Meath, and Leitrim counties have not petitioned for some legislation on the subject?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, I have no official information on this subject, but have noticed the reports in the newspapers of the Charges of the learned Judges referred to, and have no reason to suppose that the remarks attributed by the hon. Member to Mr. Justice Fitzgerald and Mr. Justice Keogh are not correct. I find, however, that although Baron Dowse said that "something should be tried" to stop this evil, he expressed himself as "completely powerless to suggest" what the remedy should be, and "could not say whether Sunday closing or Permissive Bills would be of any use;" and that Lord Chief Justice Whiteside, after alluding to the increase of drunkenness, said, with reference to the more serious crimes, "that he differed in toto from those who attributed to intemperance most of the crime of the country." I am not aware that any Petitions for legislation on the subject from the Grand Juries named have reached the Government.