§ MR. STANLEY LEIGHTON (Shropshire, Oswestry)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the renewal of1 organised resistance to the payment of tithe rent-charge in Montgomeryshire, and to the riot which occurred on the 12th of July at Llanfihangel, in that county, in which Major Godfrey, the Chief Constable, was struck, and Mr. Craft, the auctioneer, repeatedly kicked by the mob; and whether the Government will take steps to ensure the punishment of those who enter into illegal combinations to defeat the law?
§ * MR. W. H. SMITHThe Secretary of State has received a Report from the Chief Constable, who states that there was no organised resistance to the payment of tithe on the occasion in question, nor has there been in that county for the last three years. It is not the fact that the Chief Constable was struck. The auctioneer was once kicked, but not seriously. In each case the amount distrained for was recovered, and the Chief Constable attributes what slight disturbance there was to the fact that insufficient notice was given to him of the levying of distraint, and time did not allow of the adoption of those conciliatory measures which have hitherto been successful in securing the due enforcement of the law without disturbance. The Chief Constable states that there is no evidence whatever of any illegal combinations to defeat the law. Were such evidence forthcoming in this or in any other county, the Government are prepared to take steps to bring to punishment any such offenders against the law.