HC Deb 17 July 1884 vol 290 cc1395-6
MR. HARRINGTON

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he will advise the Law Officers of the Crown to avail themselves of any further means still open to them to obtain the decision of a Court on the conduct of Colonel Digby; and, whether, considering the character of the evidence now in the hands of the Crown in this case, he will bring the conduct of Colonel Digby before the Lord Chancellor, and also the part taken by the local justices?

MR. TREVELYAN

The two legally constituted tribunals, having decided that there is against Colonel Digby no evidence of guilty intent, I am advised that there are no other constitutional means of further investigating the matter; and I see no ground upon which I could lay the case before the Lord Chancellor.

MR. HARRINGTON

Is it not a fact that there are still two cases pending against Colonel Digby—one of an attempt to defraud the Land Commissioners, and another in which a successful attempt was made to defraud them; and are not these cases going to be investigated?

MR. HEALY

I would ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the Government did not dismiss Mr. John Byrne from the office of Collector General of Rates in Dublin, a position worth £1,000 a-year; and what ground he has now for refusing to lay the case of a similar offender before the Lord Chancellor?

COLONEL KING-HARMAN

asked if one of the magistrates who investigated this case was not a general officer who had served his country for many years, and whether the other was not 40 years on the bench?

MR. HARRINGTON

I would ask whether one of these gentlemen did not attend the local bench for two years until he came to do a job for a brother magistrate?

[No replies.]