§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that in the partitioning of the Anketel Grove demesne estate, in County Monaghan, by the Estates Commissioners, injustice has been done to a number of Protestants, who, according to the rules usually followed by the Commissioners, ought to have received portions of the property; whether he is aware that on the preliminary list prepared by the Commissioners' inspector there were eighteen Protestants and seventeen Roman Catholics, and that although the Roman Catholics were allocated more than two-thirds of the estate, the list was subsequently altered, and the estate finally divided amongst thirty Roman Catholics and fourteen Protestants; and will he say who was responsible for this change, and on what grounds it was made.
§ MR. BIRRELLI have referred this Question, to the Estates Commissioners, who strongly deprecate the suggestion contained in it. In allotting lands the Commissioners do not make any inquiry as to the religion of the applicants, nor do they in any way take such matters into consideration.
§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGThen how does the right hon. Gentleman account 296 for the extraordinary fact that the preliminary list contained the names of eighteen Protestants and seventeen Roman Catholics, while in the final list there are thirty Catholics and only eighteen Protestants?
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Commissioners make no inquiry whether a man is a Catholic or a Protestant.
§ MR. DILLONAre not two of the Estates Commissioners Protestants and only one a Catholic?
§ MR. BIRRELLI believe that is the case, but I always deprecate making inquiries.