§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether Mr. Edward Caraher, Sessional Crown Solicitor for Drogheda, acted within his power in sending by post, to London, on the 1st instant, summonses addressed to Mr. Gill, M.P., and Mr. Cox, M.P., calling on them to appear for trial by a Stipendiary Court at Drogheda on that day week; whether he was authorized to forward, with the summonses, a demand that the honourable Members should put into his hands, by the following Thursday, an undertaking that they would appear at Drogheda on the succeeding Monday; what authority he had to intimate, as he did by letters accompanying the summonses, that unless such undertakings to appear on 394 Monday the 8th instant reached him by Thursday the 4th instant, "new warrants would forthwith be issued," but if such undertakings were so given, "no action would be taken on the warrants already issued;" whether the required undertakings not having been given, the new warrants were issued; and, whether, if they were issued, any steps were taken to execute them?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI am advised that the reply to each of the inquiries in the first and second paragraphs is in the affirmative. The intimation was made by the authority of the Attorney General for Ireland. No new warrants were issued. I may add that the course adopted by the hon. Gentleman was taken after I had called his attention to some observations by the right hon. Member, in which he suggested that the employment of warrants instead of summonses was superfluous.
§ MR. SEXTONWhat I want to know is, whether a summons sent by post from Ireland to London is a summons properly served?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe right hon. Gentleman must be well aware that a summons served in this country has no legal force in Ireland, and that the only way of proceeding against persons in this country for offences committed in Ireland is by warrant.
§ MR. SEXTONIn future, in a ease of this kind, when a summons has been issued will the authorities wait until the summons is returnable before they issue a warrant?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURIn this case warrants were issued; but the hon. Members concerned had left Ireland before the warrants were executed. I was asked in this House whether warrants would be executed, and my reply was that they would in due course. The right hon. Gentleman said that would be an unnecessary mode of procedure in the case of persons who had shown no disinclination to appear in answer to a summons. I called the attention of the Attorney General to the matter, and no further warrants were issued.
§ MR. SEXTONThe point of my question still remains. What I wish to ascertain from the right hon. Gentleman is, whether he will arrange that when summonses have been issued the Government will wait until the day upon which 395 they are to be heard before issuing warrants?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURIn the event of a summons being issued to Members of Parliament, there will be no attempt, of course, to issue a warrant until it is clear that the person summoned does not intend to appear.
§ MR. SEXTONMay I ask the right ton. Gentleman whether the prosecution of Mr. Cox, M.P., and Mr. Gill, M.P., having failed in consequence of the rejection by the Magistrates of the evidence of the police reporter, as being unworthy of credit, the Irish Government will defray the expenses imposed upon these honourable Members by reason of this unfounded charge?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have ascertained that there is no precedent for the course suggested by the right hon. Gentleman.
§ MR. SEXTONI beg to give notice that on the Vote for Criminal Prosecutions in Ireland I will move that the expenses in the case of these two Members he paid out of that Vote.