§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the charge of the Right Hon. Chief Baron Palles to the Grand Jury of Westmeath at the Spring Assizes in Mullingar, in which his Lordship declined to incorporate in his charge official statistics of suspected or undiscovered crimes contained in statements of the condition of the county prepared by the Royal Irish Constabulary, specifically refused to deal with any matter save the criminal cases before him, and reprobated the practice of making comments or representations on matters of which he as a judge was wholly ignorant, and on which he would be acting purely on the statements of the police; and whether he will consider the advisability of putting an end to the practice of presenting Judges of Assizes before their charges to the Grand Jury with constabulary reports and comments on the state of the Irish counties, and providing some other means for the communication of the information contained in those reports to, the public.
§ MR. ATKINSONMy attention has been called to a report of the charge of Chief Baron Palles, published in the Dublin morning papers of the 4th instant. I have no means of ascertaining whether these reports are accurate or not; their purport and effect do not appear to me 727 to be accurately represented in the Question. The practice referred to has existed for many years. It is, I think, generally approved of, and there is no intention to depart from it.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that this practice is a purely Irish one?
§ [No answer was returned.]