§ MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the fact that Mr. Fenton, Crown Solicitor for Sligo, who has caused a summons to be issued for conspiracy under the Criminal Law and Procedure Act, 1887, against the hon. Member for North Leitrim, to be tried before two resident magistrates on 6th June, is the same Mr. Fenton who 1125 issued a writ against this hon. Member for an alleged conspiracy to injure him, in which the venue is laid in Belfast for the July Assizes; whether the Government will call on Mr. Fenton to explain why, instead of bringing a civil action for conspiracy against the hon. Member, he has failed to take penal proceedings against him before the local resident magistrates; whether he is aware that Mr. Fenton procured a writ of attachment to be issued against the hon. Member last year in a civil proceeding; that Mr. Fenton was also employed by the Crown to collect evidence and otherwise on the occasion of the recent prosecution of the hon. Gentleman in Dublin; and that Mr. Fenton when a candidate for Sligo Corporation was defeated by the hon. Member; can the communications made by Mr. Fenton to Dublin Castle, advising the present prosecution of the hon. Member, or those from Dublin Castle to Mr. Fenton on the same subject, be laid upon the Table; and whether, in view of the fact that the hon. Member is the third defendant from County Sligo in civil proceedings against whom Mr. Fenton has claimed damages before a Belfast jury within the past twelve months, the Government will consider the desirability of transferring him from Sligo to Belfast with a view to prevent his civil and criminal engagements from clashing.
§ MR. WYNDHAMMr. Fenton, in his capacity of Crown Solicitor for the County of Sligo, appeared in the ordinary course of his duty as solicitor to instruct counsel in the prosecutions under the Crimes Act directed by the Government on the advice of the law officers. Mr. Fenton also assisted, as he was bound to do, in the prosecution of the hon. Member for North Leitrim, referred to in the second paragraph. All the other proceedings mentioned in the question are proceedings taken by Mr. Fenton in vindication of his civil rights as an ordinary Member of the community. The Government are not in any way responsible for these proceedings, and see nothing in them inconsistent with his position as Crown Solicitor. Mr. Fenton will not be called upon by the Government for any explanation as to the form of the proceedings he has taken on his 1126 own behalf. There is no power to transfer him to Belfast, and even if the power existed the Government would not transfer such an efficient public officer from the scene of his useful labours.