§ MR. WILLIAM KENNYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been directed to the reports in the public Press of the proceedings at the Limerick Assizes, before Mr. Justice Gibson, on Saturday last, from which it appears that four men were tried for moonlighting with blackened faces, that apparently the Judge was convinced of their guilt, and that the jury acquitted them; and whether these reports are accurate; and, if so, whether he will endeavour to stop the further development of crime in the County of Limerick, by directing that future cases of moonlighting in that county shall be tried in some other venue?
MR. J. MORLEYMy attention has been drawn to the proceedings in the case referred to and to the observations of Mr. Justice Gibson. Four men were indicted under the Whiteboy Act, and the jury acquitted them on all counts. The Judge, in his Charge to the jury, said—
The case was not attended with any violence, and the offence was not an aggravated one; still it was the duty of jurors to put down such a system of lawlessness by idle youths visiting houses for the purpose of raising money with or without violence, otherwise if it remained unchecked by jurors they themselves would sooner or later pay the penalty of their cowardice.He had already stated that, pending the next Assizes for the county, the Crown would consider what course it would be proper to pursue.