§ MR. MARUMasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been directed to, or any report received from the local constabulary, concerning extraordinary proceedings that have recently taken place in the police district of Johnstown, in the county of Kilkenny, that is to say, that Mr. Den. Keatinge, of Woodsfift, a deputy lieutenant and magistrate of the county, is in occupation of certain holdings surrounding his demesne from which the tenants have been evicted some two or three years ago; that the boundary fences of the same are in a very defective condition, rendering them liable to the trespass of stock; that Mr. Keatinge, and his son Mr. Morris Keatinge, holding a Commission in one of Her Majesty's Regiments of the Line, together with a large posse of bailiffs, proceeded from their residence about midnight to those holdings, and distrained certain donkeys, goats, and sheep trespassing thereon; that they escorted those animals to the various residences of the owners, and knocked violently at their doors about one o'clock a.m., some of whom were thus coerced to pay the regulation trespass fines then and there to this local justice, and others, not having cash in their houses, remained indoors, whereupon a large and continued uproar ensued, and the doors of the dwelling-houses were battered and defaced, and, 1316 in some portions, smashed in; that especially the residence of the National school teacher of Grane, Mr. Maher, was similarly visited, and trespass for donkeys demanded; and that, owing to the difficulty of arousing the sleeping inmates, shouting and screeching and other noises were made use of, to the disturbance and terror of the inhabitants of the entire locality, extending over a considerable area, and finally the teacher himself was assailed in abusive language, and threatened with eviction; and, whether, even if such distresses are held legal, such unusual mode of proceeding, fraught with danger to the public peace, and adopted by a justice of the petty sessions district in which these dwelling-houses are situate, will be brought under the notice of the Lord Chancellor or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal.
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI have directed the police, who had no knowledge of the alleged proceedings, to make inquiries into the matter; but I have not yet received their Report.