§ MR. BIGGARasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, What authority Mr. Henry Keogh, R.M., had for refusing, on 1st instant, in the case of the Crown versus six persons arrested at Baltray, in County Louth, on a charge of having assaulted a process server, the security of Mr. Nicholas Carroll, a respectable trader in Termonfeckin, when he presented himself as bail for the accused persons, on the ground that he was a member of the Land League, announcing at same 208 time his determination to take no member of this organisation as a bailsman; is he aware that, in the event of no other than Land Leaguers offering as bail, the accused persons would, by the course this magistrate took, have been subjected to punishment in being committed to gaol to await their trial at the assizes (where they were acquitted); and, does this magistrate's mode of dealing with cases like that referred to meet with the approval of the Government; if not, will any steps be taken to prevent similar conduct in future?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, several persons were brought before the resident magistrate at Baltray, county Louth, charged with having formed a part of a riotous mob and with having assaulted a process-server, and obliged him to fly for his life into a house, which they immediately surrounded, and from which he was finally rescued by the police. The resident magistrate committed the accused for trial. His refusal to accept bail was an act done in his judicial capacity, with which he (Mr. W. E. Forster) had no right to interfere; but the magistrate had informed him that the ground of his refusal was not because the parties were members of the Land League, but because he believed the persons whom he refused were connected with the outrage. The magistrate fixed the bail at a low rate, well knowing that other bailsmen would come forward, which, as a matter of fact, they immediately did.