HC Deb 13 June 1907 vol 175 cc1608-10
LORD R. CECIL (Marylebone, E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that certain powers contained in The Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, such as the power to hold a preliminary inquiry, the summary jurisdiction powers, the power to enrol special jurors and to remove the venue of trial, have long formed part of the ordinary law of Scotland; and whether, in view of the present difficulty of maintaining order in Ireland, he will cause such parts of the Irish Act as are identical with Scottish law to be put in force immediately.

MR. BIRRELL

The Government still have confidence in the ordinary law, properly and impartially administered. There are several prosecutions for offences connected with grazing lands pending for the Assizes which will be held next month. The Attorney-General intends to prosecute in person in at all events some of these cases; and in these circumstances the Government do not propose, as at present advised, to take the course suggested in the Question.

MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood)

asked whether the Government had confidence that the law would be properly and impartially administered.

MR. BIRRELL

We still have confidence in the ordinary law, properly and impartially administered.

MR. MOORE

asked whether, if these prosecutions resulted in disagreement and miscarriage of justice, the Government would take further measures.

MR. BIRRELL

The Government will act on events when they happen.

Mr. FLAVIN

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that the panels for those trials are composed entirely of Hottentots?

MR. SWIFT MACNEILL

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that when the Irish Coercion Act referred to by the noble Lord was under debate in this House the late Mr. J. B. Balfour stated that no similar power existed in Scotland, and that as an ex-Lord Advocate he did not think those who had taken part in the administrations of the criminal law would tolerate such a practice as that of examining on oath persons in respect of a crime for which no one was being charged.

MR. BIRRELL

I have not had an opportunity of confirming that, but no doubt the statement is characterised by the usual accuracy of the hon. Member.[Ironical laughter.] Well, I think the hon. Member is usually very accurate.

MR. CHARLES CRAIG (Antrim, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether a circular has been issued to Crown solicitors in certain disturbed districts in Ireland, instructing them not to press for punishment by imprisonment, but for a rule of bail only, in certain cases connected with agrarian offences.

MR. BIRRELL

No, Sir.

MR. PIKE PEASE

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Congested Districts Board and the Estates Commissioners are making overtures in the West of Ireland for the purchase of grass lands which the owners are unable to stock owing to the disturbed state of the country; whether it has come to his knowlege that, in consequence of the action of the United Irish League and similar agencies, these lands have considerably depreciated in value; and whether he will instruct the Estates Commissioners and the Congested Districts Board that they are to cease from taking advantage of the present agrarian disturbance by endeavouring to purchase from the embarrassed owners lands thus artificially reduced below their fair market value.

MR. BIRRELL

The more of the grass lands in the West of Ireland that the Congested Districts Board and the Estates Commissioners are able to buy the better pleased I shall be. I have no information that any such lands have depreciated in value for the reasons alleged in the Question. In estimating the price which they may offer for a particular property, neither the Board nor the Commissioners are influenced by any such consideration as is mentioned in the concluding part of the Question. They offer what they consider to be the value of the land for the purposes entrusted to them by Parliament, and this is ascertained by inspection of the land itself.