§ MR. SAMUEL YOUNGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that some months ago two children of a man named Roger O'Brien were placed in the Coleraine workhouse, that they were shortly after their birth baptised as Roman Catholics, and that they have since been registered as Protestants in the books 638 of the workhouse; whether these children will be delivered over to their father, who has applied for them, if he undertakes to support them; and by whom, and under what authority, and when, their religion was changed from Catholic to Protestant in the books of the workhouse at Coleraine.
§ MR. G, W. BALFOURThe putative father of these children is, I understand, a Roman Catholic, whilst their mother, who died in January last, was a Protestant. The two elder children were, it appears, baptised as Protestants and the two younger as Roman Catholics. The board of guardians at their meeting held on the 10th February, having before them the opinion of counsel, resolved that the religious registration of the younger children in the workhouse books should be altered from Roman Catholic to that of Irish Church. I am unable to reply to the second paragraph; the matter is one for the guardians themselves to deal with.
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNOR (Liverpool, Scotland)Have the Government no power to interfere with these attempts at proselytism?
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe matter lies entirely in the hands of the guardians.