§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that on the 6th instant about sixty persons illegally entered on the Montalt estate, Tipperary, lately purchased by the Estates Commissioners, and ordered the Commissioners' engineer, who was dividing up the property into small holdings, to cease work, and theatened that no further operations would be permitted until a guarantee was given by the Estates Commissioners that certain persons chosen by the United Irish League should be supplied with land, and that the Rev. Mr. Duboe, the Protestant clergyman, should not be given the late agent's house, though the same adjoins his church and is eminently suitable for a rectory; will he say whether the Commissioners' engineer stopped work at the 293 command of these persons; how many police were present; and what course do the Estates Commissioners intend to pursue in the matter.
§ MR. BIRRELLI am informed that the facts are not as stated in the Question. On 5th May about twenty-five labourers assembled on the road adjoining the Montalt estate which has been purchased by the Estates Commissioners and upon which the Commissioners' surveyor was marking boundaries. Two of the number entered upon the land and asked the surveyor to cease work until the labourers claims were satisfied. The surveyor replied that he could not do so, but he offered to forward to his Commissioners any representation the labourers desired to make. The two men thereupon retired; they used no threat, and made no mention of the United Irish League, or of the Rev. Mr. Duboe, or of the agent's house. The surveyor completed his work without interference. A district inspector and fourteen policemen were present. It is the intention of the Commissioners to sell the late agent's house to the Rev. Mr. Duboe.