§ MR. DE COBAIN (Belfast, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he had seen the statements made in The Northern Whig, of 24th instant, the leading Liberal journal in the North of Ireland, respecting the recent election of Poor Law Guardians for the Lurgan Union, in which the freedom of election was seriously interfered with by the National League and the Roman Catholic Priesthood; that Catholic voters were threatened by the Priests, if they would not vote for the Nationalist candidates, they would be proclaimed non-Catholic; that the National League also used threats of a most shameful character, informing one man, a voter, that if he did not vote in obedience to their dictum, he would be denied the rites of the Church and Christian burial, and that when he would die, he would be buried like a dog; that, in another case, the League had threatened to burn the house over a voter's head if he persisted in disobedience, and that another voter was told they would put a bullet through him if he voted for a Protestant; that mobs followed the Police when distributing the papers, and a loyalist band was fired upon by the Nationalists; if he would direct the attention of the Local Government Board to these matters in order that the elections held under such circumstances might be quashed; and, if, in view of this terrorism, he would immediately take steps to introduce a similar measure to that of which notice had been given by the Right honourable gentleman the Member for Bristol, when Leader of this House, to suppress the National League in Ireland?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)Sir, careful inquiry has been made into these statements quoted from The Northern Whig, and it cannot be ascertained that there is any truth in the allegations that persons were threatened as stated. The police, of their own knowledge, can state that no mob followed them, that no bands were out on that occasion, and that no shots were fired.