§ MR. LANE (Cork County, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to a reported sale of the Ponsonby Estate to a London syndicate, of which the hon. Member for South Huntingdon is a member; whether he is aware that this transaction took place at a time when negotiations for a purchase scheme were far advanced between Mr. Ponsonby and his tenants, and that it is stated, on behalf of the purchasers, that they bought this property to prevent the sale to the tenants, because the proposed terms would reduce the price of land in the district; whether there are over 300 tenants on this property, some of them holding farms which have been in possession of their families 200 years and upwards; and, whether, in the event of any evictions taking place on this property, the forces of the Crown will be lent to this syndicate?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have seen the report, but have no official knowledge on the subject of this or the next paragraph. I will make inquiries, if the hon. Member wishes it, into the Questions asked in the third paragraph. I am not aware that any transaction of the kind referred to would alter either the status of the tenants, or the duty of the Government to support the Sheriff in the execution of the decrees of a Court.
§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)I should like to ask whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that negotiations for a settlement in this case had proceeded so far when Mr. Smith Barry and his confederates intervened; that the agent on the 21st of last month stated that he hoped his efforts for a settlement would not be in vain; and as this appeared to be a conspiracy on the part of a body of landlords to prevent 1505 a settlement being come to between an Irish landlord and his tenants in a district where a conflict had been proceeding for two years, I beg to ask whether, as a matter of public policy, the right hon. Gentleman will have any objection to make some representation to Mr. Smith Barry and his confederates in regard to their intervention, which may result in the clearing away of inhabitants of the district, producing something like a state of civil war in the district?
§ MR. A J. BALFOURI do not agree with the peculiar use of the word "conspiracy." As regards the latter part of the Question, I consider that to act as suggested would be an unwarrantable intrusion on my part in private affairs.
§ MR. LANEMay I ask if the right hon. Gentleman is aware that while the negotiations between the tenants and the landlord were in progress Mr. Smith Barry declared at a banquet in Cork that Ponsonby would never settle with his tenants; and whether on the following day Mr. Ponsonby's agent telegraphed in reply to Rev. Canon Keller, who had charge of the arrangements for the tenants, to the effect that the statement was utterly unauthorized?
§ * MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! I think the hon. Gentleman had better put the Question on the Paper: it is not a Question likely to be answered off hand.