§ MR. FINIGANSir, before the hon. and learned Member for Beaumaris (Mr. Morgan Lloyd) asks the Question which stands in his name I rise to a point of Order. I wish to ask whether it is in accordance with the procedure of this House that the Attorney General should decide a point of law? This point of law is involved in the second part of the Question.
§ MR. SPEAKERI see no ground for interposing between the hon. and learned Member and the House. If he desires to put his Question to the Attorney General, the Attorney General will make his answer on his own responsibility.
§ MR. MORGAN LLOYDasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, if his attention has been called to a speech which appeared in the "Times," "Standard," and other newspapers this morning, alleged to have been delivered 1522 in Ireland yesterday by the honourable Member for Cork City, containing the following passage:
I do not myself think that the evictions will he very numerous, but a practical piece of advice that I might give you would he this, that where the landlords persist in evicting any tenant, the tenant should call his neighbours in a few days before the eviction and plough up all the ground, and leave it with him in that condition. They will then not be able to turn cattle on the land to graze;And, whether such advice is not an incitement to the commission of a malicious injury to property and an offence against the Criminal Law of Ireland?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. LAW)Sir, in reply to the Question of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaumaris (Mr. Morgan Lloyd), I have to say that the only report of the speech in question which I have as yet seen is that given in some of yesterday's papers. I beg, however, to assure my hon. and learned Friend that the matter to which he refers is receiving and shall receive very careful consideration.