§ MR. LONSDALEI beg to ask Mr Attorney-General for Ireland whether any convictions were obtained in the agrarian cases tried at the Connaught winter assizes last week: and whether, he will state the nature of the instructions issued with respect to the challenging of jurors.
§ MR. CHERRYThere were, as I am informed, only two cases of an agrarian nature for trial from the whole province of Connaught at the winter assizes, which have just concluded. Neither of these was of a very serious nature, involving either loss of life or injury to the person. The charges were for riot and unlawful assembly; and in both cases, unfortunately, the jury disagreed. The instructions issued by me to the Crown solicitors with respect to the challenging of jurors were to the effect that no juror should be ordered to stand aside on account of his religious or political convictions, but that if the Crown solicitor had information upon which he could rely that any particular juror was related to any of the accused, or that he had expressed any strong opinions on 1047 the merits of the case, or that he had been canvassed on behalf of the accused and was for that reason unlikely to try the case impartially, he should order him to stand aside.