§ MR. JOHN REDMONDI wish, with the permission of the House, to make a brief personal explanation. The other day† I asked the Chief Secretary
† See preceding volume, p. 696.256 for Ireland a Question with reference to the employment, as an expert witness in handwriting in a criminal case, of an official assignee of the Court of Bankruptcy in Ireland named Mr. Macintyre; and in a supplementary Question I inquired whether the Solicitor General for Ireland had not described Mr. Macintyre as an I impostor. Since then my attention has been called to the letter in the newspapers from the Solicitor General for Ireland, in which he says—"I deem it but just to Mr. Macintyre to state that neither upon that nor on any other occasion did I refer to him as an impostor as suggested by Mr. Redmond. It is quite true that in the defence of my client I endeavoured, by very severe criticism, to discount his evidence as an expert in handwriting, but I did not use that expression." Although I hold the strongest possible views with regard to the employment of an official of the Bankruptcy Court as an expert in handwriting in criminal prosecutions in Ireland, I desire to express my regret for having unwittingly been the means of circulating a statement which was unfounded in reference to this Gentleman. The Solicitor General did riot use the word impostor, and I am sorry I suggested it.