§ MR. BIGGARasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether it is a fact that at the Spring Assizes for the county of Longford, in this year, the Grand Jury of that county granted a guarantee of five per cent to the Promoters of the Granard Junction Tramway Company, on a certain small portion of the barony of Granard, without giving previous notice to the occupiers of said small portion that this large guarantee would be imposed upon them; that, inasmuch as the presentment was thrown out by the Privy Council for informality, and a new application will be before the same Grand Jury, on next Friday, for a new guarantee in respect of same, and the public notion again not specifying any portion of the barony to be charged, whether the Lord Lieutenant will issue instructions to said Grand Jury that some notice should be given to the occupiers of the portions of the barony proposed to be charged with this heavy responsibility; and, further, that, inasmuch as the only substantial means of profit to pay the said Promoters five per cent on the paid-up capital of said Company will be the carriage of goods from the proposed station on the Midland Great Western Railway Company's Line to the town of Granard, he will ascertain, for the information of the cesspayers, what has been the average delivery, either by freight or tonnage, of goods out of Ballywillan (the present station on said Railway for Granard goods) per month, or for the last three or any three months?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER), in reply, said, that this Question only appeared on the Paper to-day, and he was unable to make a full statement on the matter. He might say, however, that it was not the province of the Lord Lieutenant to issue instructions to the Grand Jury under the Act. With regard to the 3rd paragraph of the Question, the information sought for could only be got on application to the Railway Companies, and the Government had no means of obtaining it.