§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he can give the House any information as to the number of cases in which persons have been committed for trial on account of the murders or more serious agrarian outrages reported in Ireland during the months of April, May, and June, 1882, or have been summarily punished for minor agrarian outrages; why, since 1st May 1882, the powers of arrest and detention conferred upon the Irish Government by "The Protection of Person and Property (Ireland) Act, 1881," have only been exercised in the seven cases stated by him to the House, and not with reference to any of the other murders and serious crimes, for which no one has been made amenable to the ordinary law; and, in how many of the seven cases in question the warrants were signed by the present Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, or by himself?
§ MR. TREVELYANWith regard to the first portion of this Question, the Inspector General of Constabulary informs me that to enable him to furnish the information asked for, he must com- 1384 municate with the County Inspectors throughout Ireland, and that it will take eight or ten days to collect the information. I have requested him to take immediate steps for doing so. With regard to the second portion of the Question, the Lord Lieutenant has not hesitated to use the Protection of Person and Property Act for the purpose of preventing murder and maintaining order on all occasions when he was recommended by the authorities in charge of the district to use it. With regard to the other part of the Question, I may say that in three of the seven cases which have been referred to as having occurred since the 1st of May the warrants were signed by the present Lord Lieutenant. In the other four cases I presume they were signed by the late Chief Secretary. The three persons who were arrested under warrants signed by the present Lord Lieutenant were arrested on reasonable suspicion of shooting and wounding a farmer named Trimble in the County Cavan.
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHI will repeat the first part of my Question in a week or ten days. May I ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether there is any truth in the telegram which has been published to the effect that 19 persons have been arrested in the district of Loughrea this morning under the Act on suspicion of having participated in the crime recently committed there?
§ MR. TREVELYANI have not received a telegram to the effect that any arrests have been made; but I know that if these arrests will conduce to the maintenance of law and order the Lord Lieutenant would not scruple for a moment to make them.