THE GOVERNMENT AND IRISH NATIONALIST MEMBERS — APPOINTMENT OF MR. GILL IN IRISH AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. (Hansard, 25 June 1900)

§ MR. BUTCHER (York)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, to whom I have given private notice of the question, whether his attention has been called to a letter appearing in the Morning Post on Friday last from the hon. Member for Stoke, in which he refers to the recent appointment of Mr. Gill to a post in Ireland, and uses these words— Now we know what the bargain was between the Government and the Nationalist party. The Nationalists were not to object 923 to the creation of a new office for Mr. Horace Plunkett's benefit, and in return they were to be allowed a share of the booty in the minor appointments. I should like to ask whether that statement, as to a corrupt bargain between the Nationalist party and the Government, has any foundation in fact.