§ MR. W. J. CORBET (Wicklow, E.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether a large number of Catholic jurors were compelled to attend the recent Assizes at Wicklow, many of them from distant parts of the county, at great inconvenience and cost to themselves, and that, for the trial of prisoners charged with capital offences, the Crown Prosecutor directed all Catholic jurors to stand aside, and so obtained exclusively Protestant juries; whether he is aware that a meeting of Catholic jurors was held in the Town Hall of Wicklow on the 9th instant, at which a protest was signed by certain of the jurors ordered to stand aside, against the insult to which they considered they had been subjected, repudiating any sympathy with moonlighting, and protesting against the transfer of cases from distant counties; and, whether he will take this protest into his consideration?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)The alleged protest has not been received. The hon. Member must be aware that the duties of jurors are diminished, instead of increased, by the order to stand aside.
§ MR. W. J. CORBETI wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman, is it a fact that in all the Catholic cases tried the juries were exclusively Protestant; and is he aware that in the County of Wicklow the proportion is 58,000 Catholics to 15,000 Protestants? I wish to ask him, then, how it came to pass that exclu- 739 sively Protestant juries were sworn in to try the cases?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am afraid I cannot answer the Question of the hon. Member unless he gives me Notice.
§ MR. W. J. CORBETI will repeat the Question.