§ MR. PATRICK M'HUGH (Leitrim, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland—(1) whether, in connection with the prosecution of certain tenants on the Massereene estate, the Irish Government are having recourse to a statute of Edward III.; and (2) will he direct that agricultural trade unionists in Ireland, who may be charged with offences similar to those alleged against the Massereene tenants, shall be tried under the ordinary law?
MR. J. MORLEYI replied yesterday to an inquiry similar to that contained in the first paragraph. Justices of the Peace in England and in Ireland have at all times exercised the power of requiring persons to find sureties of good behaviour when, in the exercise of their judgment, a case is made out for it in evidence. The power is founded on their commission as Justices and the statute of Edward, and it is, and has been, the ordinary law. Of course, every case of this description must depend upon its own peculiar circumstances.