§ Mr. BLANE (Armagh, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that Captain Preston, R.M., at Keady, County Armagh, on July 25th, refused an adjournment of certain cases for one month, and on application of District Inspector Starkie fixed the cases for August 8th; and that when the parties had gone to great expense and appeared in Court on August 8th, no Resident Magistrate was present, nor was the District Inspector present to prosecute; and, if he can state the reason of the absence of the Resident Magistrate and District Inspector?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)I understand that on the application of the District Inspector the cases of assault on Wallace and others were adjourned by Captain Preston, R.M., and two Local Magistrates to the following Keady Petty Sessions, the 8th inst., on the ground that Wallace, who was injured, was unable to attend. There was an application to adjourn for a month and another for six weeks. The fact that the case was not proceeded with on the 8th was in no way due to no Resident Magistrate being present, as the Court was fully constituted by the attendance of two Local Magistrates, but solely to the unavoidable absence of 1456 the District Inspector who, as was explained in the Petty Sessions Court on the 8th inst., was in Dublin attending as a witness in a case of manslaughter.