MR. O'BRIENsaid, he regretted to be obliged to bring a question with regard to Ireland before the House at that period of the Session. However, he had been left without any other alternative, as the hon. and learned Gentleman the Solicitor General for Ireland (Mr. Walker) had thought proper to refuse to grant a Return bearing upon the action of the Government in respect to Mr. Bolton. He was therefore compelled to take the opportunity of calling the attention of the House to the matter. He had asked for a copy of the Report sent by Vice Chancellor Fry to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland respecting Mr. Bolton's fraud upon his wife; and, also, any Correspondence which had passed between the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Attorney General for Ireland upon the subject. He (Mr. O'Brien) had been anxious that the case should be investigated, and that the public should be made aware why the Report of Vice Chancellor Fry had not been acted upon. The charge of fraud had been thoroughly investigated by a high—very high—minded Liberal Lord Chancellor and a Tory Attorney General, and, upon full consideration, they came to the conclusion that no further action should be taken in the matter. He believed, from the information which he had, that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had been hoodwinked by misleading—for he supposed he should not say fraudulently misleading—representations in reference to Mr. Bolton's conduct. It had been, he believed, represented that the matter had been settled by a friendly compromise, the fact being that Mr. Bolton submitted unconditionally to a decree, branding him with the 642 most shameful frauds, and that it was afterwards that he wrote a number of crawling letters to his wife—the unfortunate woman whom he had tried to strip of every shilling—begging her to write some letter which he might show to his superior to show that the whole thing was a friendly compromise. Now, Mr. Bolton's own evidence, and his correspondence which was produced at Belfast last week, made it pretty clear that there was something very like a conspiracy to deceive the Lord Chancellor of Ireland as to the state of facts. Mr. Bolton, in his letters to his wife, stated that the Attorney General for Ireland, at the time, was a very friendly but a very timid man; and he tried to get his wife to write a letter to the effect that the proceedings were of a friendly character, but she positively refused to state that there was any compromise. But, eventually, upon his statement that he would be driven into the workhouse, she ultimately wrote a dubious sort of letter, stating he had acted in a gentlemanly way, and that there had been negotiations going on for a settlement. It raised a very serious question as to the way that this scandal was hushed up at the time. He thought that, in the interests of fair play and for the sake of the Attorney General for Ireland, whose name had been very conspicuous in the matter, the whole business should be cleared up. It would be a scandal if any difficulty, such as the hon. and learned Gentleman the Solicitor General for Ireland had suggested last night, were allowed to interfere with the right of the public to obtain access to this document. He hoped that, even now, the hon. and learned Gentleman would allow the Return to be obtained, so that the public should be placed in possession of all the facts of the case.
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)said, it was true that he had refused to grant the Return asked for by the hon. Member for Mallow (Mr. O'Brien). The reason why he had done so was because the only documents in the possession of the Irish Government were of a confidential character between Heads of Departments, and embraced Minutes of the Law Officer with regard to a Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. It had never been the practice, 643 so far as his own knowledge went, to produce in that House any such confidential documents; and he must, therefore, decline to do so now. Another thing was that these documents were not pertaining exclusively to the present Government—they were confidential documents of their Predecessors as well; and, therefore, it would be strange indeed, and contrary to all precedent, to produce the confidential documents of their Predecessors in Office. The documents which Mr. Bolton had produced were not official documents.
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)said, he thought that there was some mistake about this. He might have been able to produce copies of his own letters; but he could not produce any letters or documents from the files of the defendants, over which he had no control.
§ MR. CALLANsaid, he was very much surprised that the hon. and learned Gentleman the Solicitor General for Ireland (Mr. Walker) had made such a reply to the hon. Member for Mallow (Mr. O'Brien). He (Mr. Callan) noticed, however, that the hon. and learned Gentleman had added the qualification "as far as his experience went." Fortunately, the hon. and learned Gentleman not been long exposed to the contamination of Dublin Castle; for he (Mr. Callan) believed that he never was in Dublin Castle before his present appointment. His sole objection to the production of these documents had been that they were of a confidential character. He would ask the hon. and learned Gentleman did Lord Justice Fry mark his letters to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland "confidential?" If he did not so mark his letters, he maintained that the Irish Government were guilty of great audacity in coming to the House of Commons and pleading that they were confidential. It was also, he contended, equally audacious to say that a document written by Mr. Justice Fry, with reference to the proceedings in a public Court, were confidential. He could not see why any Member of that House, even the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Courtney), 644 who was advising the hon. and learned Solicitor General for Ireland not to consent to the production of this document, for the purpose of sheltering this criminal, could say that it was confidential. He believed that no attempt should be made to shield a swindler and a reprobate like George Bolton. The whole thing was a mere pretence and subterfuge on the part of the Government in order to escape the censure of the English Members. The hon. and learned Solicitor General for Ireland was a Gentleman who was respected by Members of every shade of opinion in the House; and he (Mr. Callan) was very glad, for his sake, that he had not been long exposed to the corrupting, degrading atmosphere of that "sink of iniquity, Dublin Castle." He would challenge the hon. and learned Gentleman, as a gentleman and a member of the Irish Bar, to state to the House that he would give credence to Bolton's oath. He would ask him whether he considered it fair to shelter himself behind the statement that the document belonged to the Conservative Party, when he knew well that if the document was in any way calculated to damage the Conservative Party he would at once produce it? He (Mr. Callan) well knew where the iniquity rested. Earl Spencer and Detective Jenkinson were responsible for what had been done in the matter.
§ MR. HARRINGTONsaid, he was not surprised at the manner in which the Government had acted in this matter. It was quite in keeping with the attitude which they invariably adopted towards hon. Members on the Benches where he stood. Every allegation that was made by them, however well-founded it might be, with regard to the misconduct of Irish officials, was met by the Government with a flat denial. The subject was one which called for grave and full inquiry; and, upon the most ordinary principles of justice, the Government were bound to grant the Return sought for by his hon. Friend. What they asked the Government for was simply justice; and he had no doubt whatever that if they were to prolong the Sitting, and press the Government, they would get the Return which the hon. Member for Mallow asked for. Mr. George Bolton had been allowed to extract, from the files of Dublin Castle, 645 the portion of the Correspondence which told in his favour. The hon. and learned Gentleman had yet a great deal to learn of the system of brotherhood which existed amongst the officials of Dublin Castle, by which one official helped to shield another from the consequences of iniquity, knowing that if he acted differently it might be brought to his own door. They did not accuse all the officials of being rotten; but they knew there were sufficient of them engaged in infamous transactions to make it their duty, whenever the names of those officials were brought forward in connection with a case, to see that their motives were exposed. He asked the hon. and learned Solicitor General for Ireland to say whether he would not make further inquiry into the matter? Would the hon. and learned Gentleman inquire what official permitted Mr. Bolton access to the files in Dublin Castle, and, if he ascertained his name, have him punished; and would he, in justice, allow his hon. Friend the Member for Mallow access to the remainder of the Correspondence, so far as it was not strictly confidential?
§ MR. BIGGARsaid, he would earnestly appeal to the hon. and learned Gentleman the Solicitor General for Ireland to say that the Government would act impartially in the quarrel between his hon. Friend the Member for Mallow (Mr. O'Brien) and Mr. George Bolton, and that he would not allow the Government to become the partizan of the disreputable party in the quarrel. His hon. Friend only desired to be conceded fair play. The Government ought to undertake an investigation of how Mr. Bolton obtained the documents. They really were making themselves responsible, in a great measure, for vicious and disreputable persons. If, on inquiry, it was found that Mr. Bolton had stolen the documents, he should be prosecuted.