§ MR. SEXTONI wish to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether, after the County Inspector of Constabulary in Wicklow had received and left unanswered the letter of the Rev. Lawrence Farrelly, declaring his readiness to submit to arrest, the Constabulary held the warrant unexecuted for several weeks, during which the reverend gentleman might have been arrested any day at his house or in the streets of Arklow; why, having so acted, the Constabulary visited his house at five a.m. and broke into it; why, having done this, they afterwards allowed the reverend gentleman, without arrest and without a police guard, to travel from Arklow and surrender himself at Wexford Gaol; and whether the warrant to arrest empowered the police to break into the house; and, if so, what provision of Law authorized the exercise of such a power in a case of misdemeanour?
§ *MR. A. J. BALFOURI understand that though the letter was sent, the reverend gentleman afterwards changed his mind on the subject, and when the police went to his house they found it barricaded. They went to the house at an early hour in the morning, because they thought there was then the least risk of 1802 disturbance. I am advised that the action of the police in entering the house has its legal authority in Common Law.