HC Deb 15 March 1883 vol 277 cc561-3
MR. CALLAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the charges delivered, in the course of last week, to the grand juries of county Clare at Ennis, on Tuesday last, when Lord Justice Fitz-Gibbon told the grand jury that drunkenness in county Clare had increased from 960 to 1,511 cases (nearly 60 per cent.); of county Tipperary, at Nenagh, on the same day, when Mr. Baron Dowse said the cases of drunkenness in the North Biding of Tipperary had risen from 512 to 1,037 (over 100 per cent.); of county Cavan, on Wednesday, when Judge Harrison told the Cavan grand jury that the crime of drunkenness had trebled in their county; and on Friday, at Limerick, when Mr. Justice O'Brien called the attention of the grand jury of the county to "the very large increase of drunkenness," and Lord Justice Fitz-Gibbon told the grand jury of the city that, While the convictions for drunkenness show a decrease, there was a considerable increase of that offence in the rural portion of that district; and, whether it is a fact that these counties, in which it is stated by Her Majesty's Judges of Assize that drunkenness has enormously increased, are not subject to the existing Sunday Closing Act; and that, whilst in the exempted portions of the city of Limerick the convictions for drunkenness show a decrease, there was a considerable increase of drunkenness in the rural, non exempted portion of the said city?

SIR WILFRID LAWSON

asked whether it was not the fact that the decrease in the arrests for drunkenness all over Ireland since the passing of the Sunday Closing Act amounted to 32,000; and, whether the increase referred to by the Judges did not relate to the last half-year?

MR. TREVELYAN

I must ask the hon. Member to be good enough to give Notice of this Question, which involves considerable local inquiry in Ireland; and the same remark applies to the Question of the hon. Baronet, which I hope he will place on the Paper of the House.

MR. CALLAN

I have given Notice of the Question. Has the right hon. Gentleman read the Irish papers? Has he read the Charges delivered during the present week by the Judges throughout the country?

MR. TREVELYAN

I read the Charges delivered by the Judges as they came out, but this Question was only put on the Paper to-day; and when a Question is placed on the Paper it obviously means that official information is wanted, and not information obtained casually. It will take some time to obtain that information.