HC Deb 17 February 1881 vol 258 cc1075-6
MR. FINIGAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, on the 22nd of January last, the Mohill [county Leitrim) Board of Guardians passed the following resopution:— That, from the peaceable state of this county, the services of the military are not required, inasmuch as there is a total absence of crime, and their presence would tend to misrepresent the orderly state of society which happily exists; Whether a copy of this resolution was forwarded to the Local Government Board; and, whether it was not the duty of the Local Government Board to have forwarded a copy of the same resolution to him?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

Sir, the facts with regard to this matter are as follows:—The hon. Member asked me a few days ago whether I had received a copy of a resolution from the Board of Guardians for Mohill, in the county of Leitrim, with regard to the peaceful state of the county. I said that I had received no such resolution. The hon. Member then asked whether I had received any intimation of them from the Local Government Board. It now appears that the Guardians, at their meeting on the 22nd of January, were asked to consider an application made by direction of the Government for the accommodation of troops in the workhouse. They passed two regulations, the first of which declared that there was no room for troops in the workhouse, while the second was in accordance with the hon. Gentleman's statement. The clerk of the Union only forwarded the first resolution of the Local Government Board, and I have since been informed that he did not send the other resolution for some time. I may say, however, that I have since received a copy of the second of these resolutions.