THE EARL OF LEITRIMrose, pursuant to Notice—
To call Attention to a Return pursuant to an Address of the House of Lords, dated the 31st of May, 1861, relative to the Proclamations of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the Provisions of the 11th Victoria, Chapter Two, for the Preservation of the Peace in the County of Donegal and Barony of Kilmacrenan, And a Copy of any Warrant issued by The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the Search of Arms, within the Parish of Clondavadock in the Barony of Kilmacrenan, within Twenty-one Days previous to the 21st Day of April, 1864: And to ask The Lord President if there is any Law to authorize the Police in Ireland to enter the Dwelling House of any of Her Majesty's Subjects without a Warrant, and to search it, or carry off any Property of any Kind whatsoever from such House without any such written Authority.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, that the police had received information that a certain person—a bailiff of the noble Earl—was in possession of arms without a licence. That information was not acted upon because the police had no regular warrant; but on a later occasion, when the police were on revenue duty, they found the gun and took it away in a legal manner.
THE EARL OF DONOUGHMOREsaid, he looked with some doubt and anxiety upon the working of a system under which the police were required to exercise the duties of revenue officers as well as their own proper duties. In this case the officer having entered under a warrant authorizing him to search for illicit spirits, found in the house a gun and seized it, upon the ground that the man had no licence to keep a gun.