§ MR. CALLANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that since 1877 intemperance has decreased in a much less degree in the portion of Ireland in which total Sunday closing is enforced under the Act of 1878, than in the cities exempted under said Act; whether it is a fact that the official statistics show that in the city of Galway, in which the public houses are totally closed on Sunday under said Act, drunkenness increased by about fifty per cent, from 1877 to 1881; whether it is a fact that in the Dublin Metropolitan district, which is exempted under said Act, drunkenness decreased by about forty-five per cent, from 1877 to 1881; whether there are any official statistics of intemperance in Ireland of a later date than 1881; 798 whether it is true that the official statistics show that in 1881 drunkenness was somewhat greater, allowing for the diminution of population, in the portion of Ireland subjected to total Sunday closing than it had been in 1871; whether it is true that in the cities exempted under said Act drunkenness had decreased from 1871 to 18"1 by about 36 per cent, allowing for increase of population; and, whether it is true that the Report of the Inland Revenue Board for the year ending 31st March 1882 gives the number of detections for illicit distillation as follows: England 5, Scotland 8, Ireland 881?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, it is a great labour to put upon the staff of the Irish Office to examine figures in Returns which are quite as much open to the hon. Member as to us; and the argumentative conclusions which the hon. Member intends the House to draw would be put in a very different light if the full case was stated, as I shall be able to show in case the Sunday Closing Bill passes the Lords, and I have the honour of introducing it to the House.