§ MR. SEXTONI wish to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland a Question of the substance of which I have given him private Notice. It refers to a statement made by the Earl of Dartrey, Lord Lieutenant of Monaghan, in a letter read yesterday to the House by the right hon. and learned Gentleman the junior Member for the University of Dublin (Mr. Gibson). The statement was that Lord Rossmore had been superseded without any inquiry as to whether the charge against him could be substantiated. I have to ask, Whether the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal in Ireland had before them, when considering 320 the conduct of Lord Rossmore, not only the Report of Captain M'Ternan, E.M., but also the Report of Sub-Inspector Trescott, the officer whose order Lord Rossmore disobeyed by marching his men in the vicinity of the National meeting; whether on the 6th of November the Lords Commissioners, by their Secretary, communicated to Lord Rossmore the substance of the two Reports, and requested him to furnish an explanation; whether he did furnish an explanation on the 18th of November; whether the Lords Commissioners, in their letter of the 21st of November, declared their conviction (which, in fact, had been conceded in his own letter) that his Lordship had taken a leading part in a proceeding fraught with the utmost danger to the public peace; that the position asserted in his letter was altogether indefensible on the part of a magistrate; and that, in giving directions to supersede him, the Lords Commissioners had referred to his own letter, which they held to be an attempted justification of his conduct?
§ COLONEL KING-HARMANArising out of this Question, I would ask whether Lord Rossmore has ever been put in possession of the substance of the second letter of Captain M'Ternan?
§ MR. TREVELYANI am not aware that the second letter of Captain M'Ternan was communicated to him. It was furnished for the information of the Lords Commissioners, and I am not aware that Lord Rossmore saw it; at all events, it had not the slightest bearing upon the decision of the Commissioners. The Questions put by the hon. Member for Sligo are numerous, but they are all correct. I would be unwilling to answer a number of Questions of this kind put to me on the spur of the moment if I thought there was any doubt as to the statements they contained; but while saying that the Questions now asked are correct, it by no means follows that the idea of an inquiry which Lord Dartrey had in his mind would be fulfilled by what occurred.