THE MARQUESS OF CLANRICARDEasked, Whether it was intended to send any portion of Irish constables to the camp at the Curragh, as a part of the military force there assembled, or to any depot or military school of instruction in England. Since he last addressed their Lordships on this subject, one of the Judges of Assize in Ireland had noticed the inefficiency of the police, and attributed it, as he did, to their assuming too military a character.
§ THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLEsaid, that he would say, as he had said before, that he agreed with the noble Marquess that it was not desirable that the constabulary force of Ireland should assume too military a character, although he believed it was right they should be organized on a different footing from the police of this country. In reply to the first part of his noble Friend's question, he had to state that there was no intention of sending the constabulary force of Ireland to the camp at the Curragh, or any other place, with a view to military exercise. In regard to the second portion of the noble Marquess's question, the facts were these:—The arms with which the constabulary had been provided were very old, having seen at least twenty years' service; they were inefficient, and of the old smooth-bore principle. It was intended to provide them with new arms; and, of course, they ought to be of the best kind. Those would be the Enfield rifle. With a view that they should know how to use them it was intended to send five officers and sixteen head constables to Hythe, in order to be instructed in the practice of those rifles. They would afterwards be enabled to convey the instruction to the whole force. There was, however, no intention of investing them with a more military character.