§ CAPTAIN M'CALMONT (Antrim, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If, on Sunday night (7th), fifteen head of cattle, the property of a farmer named Michael O'Connor, were mutilated on his holding at Ballyculhane, Glen, county Limerick; if two other men, who lived near O'Connor, and who have recently taken a farm from which the previous tenant was evicted for non-payment of rent, had a number of cows in an outhouse, which was set on fire; if eight of the cows were roasted to death; if a quantity of hay was also burnt; and, if there had been a National League meeting in the immediate neighbourhood the same afternoon?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)The facts of these hateful cruelties are, I believe, correctly described in the Question, and it is also true that a quantity of hay was burnt. A National League meeting was held in the locality on the 797 same day, for the purpose, I believe, of selecting a Guardian to replace Lord Monteagle in the Chairmanship of the Union. I have carefully read the shorthand writer's notes of the proceedings at that meeting, and have laid them before the Attorney General for Ireland, who considers—and I fully concur in the opinion—that no language was used at that meeting that would warrant a prosecution. I should add that I am informed on good authority that the local branch of the National League have offered a reward of £100 for the discovery of the perpetrators of these atrocities.