MR. J. O'CONNOR(for Dr. TANNER) (Cork Co., Mid)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the County Court Judge presiding at the Quarter Sessions held in Macroom on Monday the 4th April, owing to the fact that the Criminal Calendar was blank, was presented with a pair of white gloves; whether, subsequently, the Judge refused to receive a Resolution unanimously adopted by the Grand Jury against the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Bill; whether the Riding in question is one of the districts the condition of which is relied on by the Government to prove the necessity for the application of the Bill; and, whether the Judge in question will be one of the Judges to hear appeals in cases under the said Act?
§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the following report from The Daily News of the 5th instant, respecting the absence of crime in the Macroom district of the County of Cork:—
At the Macroom Quarter Sessions to-day there was but one criminal case before the Sessions, and this, on the application of the Crown Solicitor, was sent forward to the Cork Assizes. It was a charge preferred against a man named Buttimer, of having been one of an armed party who entered the house of a farmer named O'Keeffe, and carried away a gun, with £15 in money. The Chairman, addressing the Grand Jury, congratulated them on the peace that prevailed in the district, there being no criminal business. The Grand Jury were then discharged. The foreman said they had a Resolution which they wished to submit to his Honour, who absolutely declined to receive it. The Grand Jury, however, adopted in their room a Resolution stating that, having regard to the crimeless and peaceable condition of the district, the Grand Jurors earnestly solicited his Honour to recommend the exclusion of the Division from the provisions of the Chief Secretary's Bill;and, whether he will give effect to the recommendation of the Grand Jury?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I have no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the newspaper reports upon which both Questions appear to be founded; but I would observe that the absence of criminal cases from the Calendar is no 685 satisfactory evidence of the real state of the country, as was clearly pointed out by the learned Judge when opening the recent Commission for the county in which Macroom is situated. The powers which the Government seek under the Bill now before the House will be exercised by the Executive with a due sense of the responsibility under which they act.
§ MR. J. O'CONNOR (Tipperary, S.)asked, whether this County Court Judge was not a landlord himself; and, whether on recent occasions he had delivered violent harangues in favour of coercion and against Home Rule from the Bench?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am not aware.
§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)May I ask, Sir, if the learned Judge on this occasion said there was anything in the condition of the Riding to alter the conclusion which one would draw from the state of the Criminal Calendar?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am not aware that the County Court Judge did so. But there was a very bad case of Moonlighting in that district, which was sent to the Assizes.