CAPTAIN AYLMERasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is true that Colonel Bayley has recently been removed from discharging the judicial functions of a Sub-Commissioner in the county of Donegal; whether he is aware that, previous to his removal, a meeting on the 22nd February was held at the Court House, Hamilton, largely attended by the tenant farmers of the neighbourhood for the express purpose of impugning the judicial decisions of Colonel Bayley, and that at this meeting the chief personal assailant of Colonel Bayley was Mr. Mackay, a solicitor, who admitted in his speech that he appeared in twenty-five cases, the decisions of which he called in question, as counsel for the the tenants, and who concluded his speech, reported in the "Deny Journal" of February 23, as follows:—
I therefore charge the cause of the distrust and of this meeting on Colonel Bayley, who has attained such notoriety in another part of Ireland, and I would therefore urge that our representatives in Parliament he called upon to use their influence, in having us relieved of that gentleman's services iu connection with fixing fair rents in Ulster?
§ MR. TREVELYANIt is true that, among other changes made at the Commencemen of the present Circuits, Colonel Bayley has been removed from the county of Donegal to another dis- 608 trict, the Land Commissioners using their own discretion in allotting Assistant Commissioners to different districts. The Commissioners inform me that until they received notice of this Question they wore unaware of the meeting referred to having been held, and the speeches made at it could not, therefore, have influenced them with regard to the transfer of Colonel Bayley.
CAPTAIN AYLMERThis being such a serious case, and a very gross action on the part of the Government, I shall call the attention of the House to it on the earliest opportunity.