§ MR. W. J. CORBETasked the Chief Secretary to the, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If his attention has been directed to a Return, issued to Members on the 26th May, relating to Agrarian and other Crimes (Ireland), for the month of December 1880; whether Hugh M`Linden, the person named at page 17, in the Return for the county Wicklow, as having been injured on the 18th December last by the receipt of a threatening letter, is the person who charged Patrick Kelly, a respectable Catholic farmer, with having fired at him, and thereby caused his confinement in gaol 1777 for several weeks, the committing magistrate having refused to accept bail, though forthcoming to any amount, and the grand jury having subsequently found that the charge was groundless; whether this Hugh M'Linden is the same person who was himself recently committed to gaol for using violent threats to a witness in open court; and, whether he will inquire through the police into the character of this "injured person," so as to be able to inform the House that he is not a "mauvais sujet," and that the other ten cases entered in the Return, of intimidation by threatening letters, or notices or otherwise, are furnished on equally reliable testimony?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. LAW)Sir, Hugh M'Linden, the person referred to in this Question, is the person who charged Patrick Kelly with having fired at him on the 13th of December last. On the 14th of December, Kelly was committed for re-examination on the 8th of January, when bail was accepted. He was returned for trial at the Wicklow Quarter Sessions; but the Grand Jury ignored the bill. I am informed that Hugh M'Linden is a man of indifferent character, and in March last was committed for seven days at Newtown Petty Sessions for contempt of Court. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information on which the cases of intimidation have been included in the Return.