§ MR. DALYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that in October last a man named James Thompson died in the police cells at Belfast; and that it transpired at the inquest that the cells were crawling with vermin and alive with rats, and were equally dangerous to the police as to prisoners; and whether he can state if any efforts have been made by the Corporation to remedy this state of things.
§ MR. ATKINSON (for Mr. G. W. BALFOUR)I am informed there is no foundation whatever for the statements contained in the first paragraph. The man James Thompson, to whom the question presumably refers, died more than three years ago, namely, in October, 1896. He was brought to the police office charged with drunkenness, and was at once removed to the Union Hospital, where he died the next day from hemorrhage of the brain. The police cells are undergoing reconstruction, and are now almost completed. When finished they will be second to none in the United Kingdom.