§ MR. DAVITTI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the compensation awarded by the Murrisk Presentment Sessions last September to a Mr. Harvey, for an alleged malicious burning of an empty house has yet been levied upon the district by the Grand Jury; whether the attention of the Executive in Dublin has been directed to the evidence of Sergeant Murphy, at the Sessions in question, in which he swore that, in his belief, the act of arson was commuted by some one in the owner's interest, and was not therefore a malicious deed; and whether, in case the sum of £250, awarded to Garvey by the votes of his friends in the Sessions, has not yet been levied upon the district, an inquiry will be instituted to investigate all the circumstances surrounding this alleged case of malicious injury?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe answer to the first paragraph is in the negative, and to the second in the affirmative. The award of compensation to Mr. Garvey must be confirmed at the next assizes to be held in March, and it will then be open to any ratepayer to traverse the presentment before the Judge of Assizes.