§ MR. ARTHUR O'CONNORsaid, he had to complain that, in a remote district of his constituency, in the barony of Upper Land in the Queen's County, a certain sergeant of police, under cover 646 of the Prevention of Crime Act, forced his way, on several occasions, into a private residence at night, and behaved in a rude and offensive manner. On six separate occasions he forced his way into the sleeping apartment occupied by female members of the family. In this way a respectable man, who was a publican, was subjected to persecution from the police sergeant, who was a dissolute ruffian. He had formal evidence that the constable was given to habits of intoxication, and that, on one occasion, he was found lying drunk on the public road. He trusted the Government would grant him a public inquiry. He had also to call attention to the fact that, notwithstanding the peaceable character of the Queen's County, and that its free force was below the proper number, extra police were quartered and charged upon it.
§ MR. COURTNEYsaid, that the particular complaint made by the hon. Member (Mr. Arthur O'Connor) regarding the apportionment of the free force in the Queen's County was part of the general complaint made by the hon. Member for the City of Cork (Mr. Parnell) about a week or 10 days ago. The Government promised to look into the whole matter during the Recess, with a view to its being redistributed. As regarded the other complaint of the hon. Member an inquiry should be made into it. With regard to the demand made by the hon. Member for Mallow (Mr. O'Brien) as to the use of official Papers during the late trials in Belfast by Mr. Bolton, he thought the hon. Member must be under some misapprehension. The hon. Member must have mistaken the character of the Papers produced on the trial.
§ MR. HARRINGTONMr. Bolton himself swore that he got those Papers from the official file.
§ MR. COURTNEYsaid, that might be a mistake in the Report. If, however, the plaintiff in the case had been furnished with documents from the official files, which he did not believe, the person who was a party to that abuse of his official position would receive the treatment which was proper and becoming for such conduct. Even if the paper were given from the official file to Mr. Bolton, it would be only committing a double error now to grant the Papers 647 for which the hon. Member for Mallow had asked.