§ MR. T. DICKSONasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If he will lay upon the. Table of the House, Copy of the Memorial referred to by him on Friday, the 16th, as having been forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant of county Tyrone, in favour of the appointment of Mr. Devlin to the Magistracy, and the reasons then assigned by the Earl of Charlemont for declining to accede to the prayer of that Memorial when presented in the year 1874?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS- BEACHSir, I am unable to lay upon the Table a copy of the memorial forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant of county Tyrone, or of any reply he may have sent to it, because the documents in question are not, and never have been, in my possession, and I only quoted them, as I stated to the House on Friday, from a correspondence I had seen in the public Press. The particular memorial signed by the hon. Member for Dungannon (Mr. T. Dickson) was not the only one to which I referred; but I may take this opportunity of assuring the hon. Member that I had no intention of attributing to him any blame for having signed the memorial in question, much less of fixing on him any responsibility for an appointment which I believe was not made, as he states, until a considerable time had elapsed since the date of his signature. So far as I am aware, however, nothing had transpired up to the date of Mr. Devlin's appointment to the Commission of the Peace which could lead anyone to suppose that his position or qualifications had in any way changed since the date of the presentation of that memorial.