§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that last November the Lord Mayor of Belfast issued a proclamation against the holding of anti-ritualist demonstrations in the vicinity of St. Clement's Church, and that this proclamation was openly defied by some of the ringleaders, and the police made no attempt to put the proclamation in force: and whether, as meetings for the purpose of agitation are held almost nightly at the east end of St. Clement's Church, adequate measures will be taken to put an end to the present disturbances?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe honourable Member seems to be in error as to the nature of the Lord Mayor's proclamation, which did not prohibit any meeting, but merely recited certain instructions that the police had received, and which they afterwards carried out, and in addition exhorted law-abiding citizens to absent themselves from the locality on Sunday evenings, and to assist the authorities in the preservation of the peace. As to the second paragraph, crowds assembled in the neighbourhood of the church and obstructing the thoroughfare, are moved on by the police.