§ MR. REDDYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state by whose authority Sergeant O'Reilly, of Shannon Harbour, King's County, went to the house of Michael Dolan, Lisclooney, no person being there but his wife and son, a boy under fourteen years of age, and took the boy, against the protests of his mother, into the stable to extract information from him, threatening at the same time to give him the prison unless his answers were satisfactory; although his mother stated that the boy was under age to take an oath.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)At the request of my right hon. friend I will reply to this question. The boy referred to in the question was a necessary witness in a case of arson, and his statement was taken in the usual way by Sergeant Reilly, on his own authority, in the ordinary discharge of 292 his duty. It is untrue that the sergeant made use of any threats, and equally untrue that the boy's mother protested, as alleged.
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!