§ MR. McCARTANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state what was the decision given by the Irish Land Commission on the question of the Ulster custom raised before it at its recent sitting at Armagh; whether it was held to be an interest of the tenant, in addition to his interest in the improvements made by him on his holding; whether the Sub-Commissioners have in many instances expressly remarked on the 648 "Pink Paper" that the holding was subject to the Ulster custom, but that they had made no allowance to the tenant in respect of same; whether the Ulster custom has been held to be a right of the Ulster tenant, as something in excess of the right belonging to a tenant of a holding in any other part of Ireland; whether he is aware that this custom entitled the tenant to sell his holding in the open market, even where no improvement had been made by him on the holding; and why, up to the present, no allowance by way of reduced rent has been made to the tenant in Ulster in respect of this right?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe judgments of the Irish Land Commission in the 'cases referred to were delivered in open Court, and have been extensively published in the Irish newspapers. These judgments are as accessible to the hon. Member as they are to me, and it is not for me to place an interpretation upon them. The matters to which this Question refers are the subject of an appeal, and pending the result of this appeal it is obviously undesirable that the operation of the judgments of the Commissioners should be discussed by way of Questions across the Table of the House.