§ MR. T. SMYTHI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state what the Estates Commissioners intend doing with an evicted farm in the town-land of Costrea, Mohill rural district, county Leitrim, on the Ruthven Estate, which formerly belonged to Patrick M'Loughlin, and contained about 34 statute acres, the rent of which was £22, raised about the year 1874 to £29, when the tenant had to take a lease for 31 years, owing to which the tenant could not avail of the Land Act of 1881, and asked the landlord for a reduction, which was refused, and the tenant was served with a writ for three half-years' rent; is he aware that in 1884 the farm was sold and was bought in on behalf of the landlord for £2; that later on in the same-year the tenant was served with an ejectment and was afterwards decreed; and, seeing that possession of the farm was taken in November 1884, and has since been in the occupation of the estate bailiff, and that last December the Estates Commissioners sent down an inspector to inspect the farm, as the former tenant sent in an application for reinstatement, and that the estate is about being sold, will the Estates Commissioners get instructions not to sanction the sale, unless M'Loughlin gets the option of buying.
† See Col. 1052.
MR. BRYCEThe Estates Commissioners inform me that having inquired into the case of the evicted tenant am carefully considered their inspector'; report thereon, they decided in May last that the case was not one in which tho3 should endeavour to effect the restoration of the applicant to the evicted holding.