§ 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 1642 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 Woods-gift, 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. Maurice 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, 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 by the Executive under the notice of the Lord Chancellor or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI am informed that the facts of this case are very much exaggerated in the Question. It appears that Mr. Den. Keatinge is in possession of some evicted farms on which cattle frequently trespass. On the night in 1643 question he visited the farms, accompanied by his son and two herds, and seized some sheep and donkeys which were trespassing. They then, as the law requires, proceeded to deliver them to their owners, who, in most cases, paid the usual trespass. They knocked several times at the door of the schoolmaster, who owned one of the donkeys, and failed to get a reply; but there was no such battering or breaking of doors, nor any such disturbance or abusive language, as is alleged in the Question, and the proceedings do not call for any notice.