§ MR. W. KENNYOn behalf of the hon. Member for Antrim (Mr. W. E. Macartney), I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the Excise authorities have not yet prosecuted the three men who were poaching in the townland of Ballybrest, County Derry, on 8th August without licences, in the close season?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT,) DerbyI am informed that three poachers were met at Ballybrest on the 8th of August last by two keepers, and that after some words the two keepers fired at the poachers, two of whom they seriously wounded in the legs and feet. The keepers were tried and sentenced, one to 12, the other to 6 months' imprisonment with hard labour for the offence. The affair was reported to the Board of Inland Revenue late in November last; but they, in the exercise of their discretion, having regard to the date of the offence (between three and four months before the report of it) and the serious wounds inflicted on two of the poachers, decided not to take any proceedings under the Excise Laws. It would now be too late to do so.