§ MR. W. CORBET (for Mr. O'CONNOR POWER)asked the Chief Secretary of State to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is true that Mr. F. O'Donel, land agent, and member of the Castlebar Board of Guardians, at a meeting of that body, threatened Mr. Joseph B. Walsh, a fellow guardian, and now Suspension prisoner under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, with arrest and imprisonment; if it is true that the same Mr. O'Donel has directed similar threats against other members of the same Board; and, if so, whether the Local Government Board 1359 will take steps to prevent the repetition of threatening language which might interfere with the elected representatives of the poor in the discharge of their duties?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER,in reply, said, the Irish Local Government Board had no information as to the language used by Mr. O'Donel, and they had no power to control the language of members of Boards of Guardians. It was the duty of the presiding Chairman of a Board to put a stop to proceedings which were of an objectionable or improper character. He dared say that in Ireland, and in England too, if it were the business of the Central Government to take steps whenever an improper or objectionable speech was made at a Board of Guardians they would have a good deal to do.