HC Deb 16 March 1893 vol 10 cc231-2
MR. T. W. RUSSELL

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the address of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland to the Grand Jury of County Mayo, as reported in The Irish Daily Independent of Saturday last, in which an increase in the class of serious crime is reported, and in which the Judge stated, with regard to the failure of the County Inspector of Police to report a case of unlawful assembly, that it caused a very nasty, uncomfortable, and disagreeable feeling to a Judge to have these things come out by special inquiries, and by putting special requisitions; and that, whatever might be the reason, there was no mention of this unlawful assembly on the record before him; and whether he can state the name of the County Inspector of Mayo, and if he has been called upon to offer any explanation of his conduct?

MR. J. MORLEY

The Judge did, I believe, make the observation. Contrary to the usual practice, he took the figures for the Winter Assize to the Spring Assize, instead of those for the Summer Assize to the Spring Assize. The case did not appear on the return presented to the Judge by the County Inspector, because the constabulary did not consider the gathering an unlawful assembly, nor was it ever reported to the Executive Government as an unlawful assembly. It is laid down in the Code that none but offences recorded as such at headquarters should be included in the return furnished to the Judge. What occurred at the meeting was not considered sufficiently important to record, because the intended meeting on the farm had been prevented, and because nothing happened at or after the meeting which, in the opinion of the constabulary, deserved to be officially reported.

MR. CARSON (Dublin University)

May I inquire whether this meeting was not reported as a meeting specially summoned to boycott a man who had taken an evicted farm; whether stones wore not thrown at the police, who had eventually to draw their batons; and whether such a meeting was not an unlawful assembly?

MR. J. MORLEY

A meeting was originally arranged to intimidate a man who had gone on to an evicted farm, but the police interfered, and the meeting was not allowed to be held near the farm. It is quite true that after the dispersion of the meeting a body of men did throw stones at the constabulary and the constabulary drew their batons; but the judgment of the police on the spot was that, as the meeting had been prevented, as no injury had been done by the stone throwing, and as they had not to use their truncheons, they were justified in not reporting it as an unlawful assembly.

MR. SEXTON

Is it the custom of the English Judges to cross-examine the police on their Reports?

MR. J. MORLEY

I am not able to answer the question.

MR. SEXTON

Perhaps the Home Secretary will say whether it is the practice in England for Judges at Assizes to cross-examine the police with respect to the official Reports to be presented at the Assizes?

MR. ASQUITH

No, Sir; I have never heard of such a thing.

MR. MACARTNEY (Antrim, S.)

Do they ever have to deal with a similar set of circumstances?

[No answer was given.]