§ EARL FORTESCUEasked the Lord Privy Seal, in the absence of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Whether Charles Parnell, Esq., M.P., who is stated in "Thom's Official Directory" for 1881 to have been at the date of its publication in the commission of the peace for county Wicklow, was then, and, if so, whether he is in the commission of the peace still? He only heard, on the last day of last week, that Mr. Parnell was in the commission of the peace, and he at once verified the information by Thom's Official Directory, and lost no time in giving Notice of this Question. If he had heard that Mr. Parnell was in the commission of the peace in January last he should have asked the Question then, because he thought it was very desirable for that Question to be publicly asked and answered.
§ LORD CARLINGFORD, in reply, said, that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland had been compelled by judicial and official business to return to Ireland; but he had given him the information which enabled him to answer the Question of his noble Friend. As a matter of fact, Mr. Parnell had been in the commission of the peace for nearly 10 years past, and was still in the commission of the peace.
§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYthought it a rather singular thing that the Government should have retained Mr. Parnell in the commission of the peace after having instituted a State trial against him, and after he had taken such a prominent part in an agitation which the Government had denounced.