§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is the fact that a proposed public meeting of the citizens of Limerick, to protest against the introduction of the Clôture system into the House of Commons, was prevented by the local magistrates; whether the troops in garrison were kept under arms, in order that they might be ready to disperse the meeting if any attempt should be made to hold it; whether he has seen the Resolutions which were to have been proposed at the meeting, and which have been published in most of the London papers, or is aware that they were Resolutions in condemnation of the Government's Clôture proposal, and of any Irish Member who should support or refrain from opposing it; and, whether, under the circumstances, the action of the magistrates has the approval of Her Majesty's Government?
§ MR. REDMONDasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, within the present week and up to the present date, the Irish Executive have caused the police to tear down placards calling upon the electors to instruct their representatives to vote in opposition to the Clôture; whether the police have seized and confiscated parcels of such placards in different parts of the Country, and have arrested men engaged in distributing or posting them; whether the police and military forces of the Crown in Ireland have been called into requisition for the purpose of preventing electors in different constituencies from assembling constitutionally in public meeting for the purpose of expressing to their representatives in Parliament their view on the 539 question of the Clôture; and, upon what principle of constitutional Government the Irish Executive justify such abolition of the constitutional rights of electors and constituencies in Ireland?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, it was a fact that the Mayor and magistrates of Limerick, acting on the responsibility which devolved on them for the maintenance of peace and order in the city, did prevent the meeting referred to, and the Government fully approved of their action, which was attended with good results. With reference to the Question of the hon. Member for New Ross (Mr. Redmond) he denied that the Irish Executive gave any instructions to the police as to these placards. In all cases the local police acted on their own responsibility. The placards, which were of a violent and inflammatory character, were calculated to lead to a breach of the peace—[Mr. REDMOND: No!]—were, no doubt, intended to intimidate hon. Members of that House from the performance of their duty. In several parts of the country these placards were taken down by the police, and in some instances bundles of them were seized, and the parties in whose possession they were found taken before the magistrates, who discharged them with a caution. The magistrates did not appear to have acted elsewhere as they did in Limerick; but, undoubtedly, if there was the same probability of a breach of the peace occurring they would be justified in acting as the Limerick magistrates did.