§ MR. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to a letter signed "T. W. Croke, Archbishop of Cashel," addressed to The Freeman's Journal, from "The Palace, Thurles," on the 17th February, in which it is said—
Had a Manifesto against paying taxes been issued at the time (of the No Rent Manifesto), I should certainly have supported it on principle. I am precisely in the same frame of mind just now. Our line of action as a people appears to me to he in this respect both suicidal and inconsistent. We pay taxes to a Government that uses them not for the public good and in accordance with the declared wishes of the taxpayers, but in direct opposition to them.…. Our money goes to fee and feed a gang of needy and voracious lawyers, to purchase bludgeons for policemen to be used in smashing the skulls of our people, and generally for the support of foreign garrisons, or native slaves who hate and despise everything Irish, and every genuine Irishman;and, whether Her Majesty's Government intend to take any, and, if so, what, action in the matter?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)Mr. Speaker, I can only say at present, in reply to my hon. Friend, that this matter is engaging the close and serious attention of the Government.
§ DR. COMMINS (Roscommon, S.)asked whether the assessed taxes, which were the principal direct taxes in England, were not imposed in Ireland?
§ [No reply.]