§ MR. D. SHEEHY (Galway, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has put a case to Colonel Longbourne, R.M., regarding the discrepancies in the statements which that gentleman has made about the presence of Lord Clanricarde's bailiff, Moran, on the Petty Sessions Bench at Woodford; whether Colonel Longbourne still adheres to his statements that Moran is not Lord Clanricarde's bailiff and did not sit on the Bench with the Magistrates, and that he only stood for a short time within the area reserved for the Magistrates; and, if so, whether he will give an opportunity of proving by sworn evidence that Moran sat on a chair beside Lord Clanricarde's agent for the space of an hour on the Bench; and what action he proposes to take in this matter?
MR. J. MORLEYI have already communicated with Colonel Longbourne, and informed him that it would have been more satisfactory had he, in the first instance, stated that, although no bailiff was on the Bench on the occasion in question, yet another person employed in some other capacity by Mr. Tener did occupy a place. The person referred to was present as the friend, and at the invitation of Mr. Tener, not of Colonel Longbourne, and it does not appear to me, under all the circumstances, that 637 further action is called for. I am satisfied that Colonel Longbourne's original report was not intended to wilfully mislead; it erred on the side of omission in not being as full as it might have been, and, as I have pointed out, I have told Colonel Longbourne that in this respect it was to be regretted his report did not satisfactorily explain all the facts of the case.