§ MR. LEWISasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he will lay upon the Table a Copy of the Address or Speech he made recently to the Liberal Tenant Eight Deputation as to the conduct of the Valuers appointed under the Irish Land Act?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, I have no notes of the speech to which the hon. Member refers. My remarks ran to a considerable length, and were entirely framed in reference to what had been said by the gentlemen who composed the deputation. On inquiry of the authorities at the Table, I am told that it is, perhaps, unprecedented to lay a speech on the Table of the House, or rather to lay speeches, for I certainly should have the strongest objection to present my own speech without the other speeches that called it forth, and to which it was a reply. Moreover, there is not the slightest occasion for what would be a most serious innovation upon the Parliamentary practice, because the proceedings of the deputation are very fully reported in the Dublin papers. I read the reports next morning while the matter was still fresh in my mind, and am quite ready to take the responsibility of anything in the report either of The Irish Times, The Freeman's Journal, or The Daily Express.