§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether many Irish landlords have, in their legal proceedings against their tenants, resorted to the Superior Courts instead of to the Courts of Quarter Sessions; and, if he will be willing to produce periodical Returns of the number of Writs issued out of the Inferior Courts in such cases, where, at much less cost to the defendants, pro- 12 ceedings might have been taken in the local Courts?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERSir, if the hon. Member will refer to the Returns No. 40 and No. 93, presented on the 28th of January and 21st of February last, he will find the answer to the Question. These Returns show that not many Irish landlords have resorted to the Superior Courts for proceedings against their tenants. It appears from the first of the Returns to which I have referred that the number of judgments entered up in the High Court of Justice for non-payment of rent during the eight months preceding the 31st of August was 56, as against 674 decrees in the Inferior Courts, in the Michaelmas Session alone, and that there were 19 judgments in the Superior Courts between the 1st of January and the 1st of September, as against 506 in the Lower Courts.