THE EARL OF LIMERICK, in rising to ask, Whether, it having been discovered that forged stamps to the number of many thousands have been circulated in Ireland, Her Majesty's Government will take immediate steps to protect the 1247 innocent persons who may otherwise suffer from the illegality of the documents stamped with such stamps? said: Your Lordships will probably have seen the statement in the newspapers of the extensive forgeries of stamps attached to legal documents which have been discovered in Ireland. I do not propose to go into the details of that discovery, or make it a question as to whether there was proper supervision or not, as the matter will be considered in a Court of Law. I only want to draw the attention of the Government to the extreme hardship, if innocent persons are allowed to suffer by these forgeries. I believe it has been stated on oath that in the Common Law Division, in one year alone, stamps to the value of £6,400 have been discovered to be forgeries, and these forgeries have been running on for a term of years. Not being a lawyer, I presume I am right in supposing that the documents to which these forged stamps are attached are worth precisely the same value as documents that are unstamped altogether. The people who possess these documents are, however, under the impression that the present state of the law makes them liable to a penalty of £10, and they do not know whether there is a power of remitting that penalty or not. The subject seems of some importance, and I know that in Ireland especially there is much interest attaching to it, and therefore I thought it right to put this Question.
§ LORD CARLINGFORD, in reply, said, that he had caused inquiries to be made into the matter, and it seemed pretty certain that this was a false alarm. Although the inquiry into the forgery of the stamps was not yet completed, it was believed that the forged stamps were merely those used in payment of Court fees, in lieu of cash, and were not of a character to affect the legality of any document.