MR. MACARTNEYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to occurrences stated in the "Dublin Daily Express" of the 19th instant to have taken place at Londonderry on the previous day, when a Nationalist demonstration was made in that city, consisting of a procession of many thousand persons carrying flags and banners with seditious mottoes inscribed upon them, when one of the arches which had been erected was taken down by order of the magistrates who considered the mottoes seditious, when in spite of the remonstrance of the loyal inhabitants, who requested the magistrates to prevent the display of seditious and disloyal emblems in the procession, they, the magistrates, declined to interfere and allowed it to march through the streets for several hours unmolested, whereas a number of loyal citizens of Derry carrying the Royal ensign were charged by the police with drawn swords, whereby the Royal ensign was cut and slashed, and the pole broken; and, whether the magistrates and police of Londonderry 115 were acting on that occasion under instructions received from the Government authorities at Dublin Castle?
§ MR. J. LOWTHERYes, Sir; my attention has been called to these proceedings, which have been described with substantial accuracy by my hon. Friend. With reference to the last paragraph in his Question, I think, perhaps, I had better briefly state the substance of the instructions that were forwarded to the authorities of Derry. They were to the effect that they should prevent the city gates or any public buildings being placarded in any way whatever, whether by loyal or disloyal placards or mottoes; also, that while no action should be taken against processions of either side so long as they constituted no danger to the public peace, any concourse of persons which appeared to be calculated to lead to disturbances should be promptly dispersed. The magistrates appear upon this occasion to have arrived at the conclusion that the particular crowd alluded to—which, by the way, I believe, carried not the Royal ensign, but a Mercantile Marine flag—was likely to be the cause of a breach of the peace, and they accordingly dispersed it. I have not as yet been able to ascertain why the opposing crowd was not also dispersed; but, doubtless, the magistrates had reasons for thinking that course unnecessary.