§ MR. HARRIS (Galway, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that Lord Clanricarde is meeting the tenantry on his Woodford Estate, county Galway, and that, in connection with these evictions, twenty-seven people have been arrested and imprisoned in Galway Gaol; whether it be true that, as stated in The Times newspaper of the 26th inst., battering rams are to be brought from Dublin in order, the more expeditiously, to level the houses of the tenantry; and, whether it is within the knowledge of the Government that the tenants on the Woodford Estate, and their predecessors in title, have built the houses and reclaimed the land from which they are in the course of being evicted; and, if so, will the Government interfere to prevent these evictions?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)was understood to say that he was unable to answer the last two paragraphs of the Question, as it only appeared in the Notice Paper that morning. But he might state that evictions were taking place on the estate of Lord Clanricarde at Woodford, and that the Sheriff's 670 officers had been met with the most determined and organized resistance. Walls had been put up, and violent attacks were made on them with boiling water and knives. Some arrests had been made.