MR. SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether it is the fact, as reported in the "Freeman's Journal" of the 14th instant, that Mr. Justice Fitzgerald, in his Charge to the Grand Jury at Clonmel on the 13th instant, expressed himself as follows:—
Referring to the cases of drunkenness, his Lordship observed that it appeared from the county inspector's list laid before him that there were 2,370 convictions for drunkenness since last Assizes, and that this description of crime was on the increase, though the increase was not very great. In the archdiocese of Cashel, where the voluntary system was in operation, the contrast was very remarkable regarding other towns in the county. Contrasting Cashel, within the diocese, to Cahir, which was in the diocese of Waterford, for every one case in Cashel there were twenty-four in Cahir; and, taking the whole county into account, for every case of drunkenness in the Cashel diocese there were fifteen in the other portions of the county;"—and, whether he will be able to lay a Copy of the Judge's Charge thus quoted from upon the Table of the House? 194 He might add that what the learned Judge must have meant by the voluntary system was the closing of public-houses on Sunday.
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHThe Government receive no reports of the Judges' Charges; but Mr. Justice Fitzgerald telegraphs to the effect that the report quoted by the hon. Member is inaccurate in one main particular, and that, if desired, he might be able to supply from memory a sketch of the Charge. As the statement in question, however, deals with matters of fact which will, I think, appear in a Return lately ordered on the Motion of the hon. Baronet the Member for King's County (Sir Patrick O'Brien), this will probably be unnecessary.