§ Sir WALTER NUGENTasked the Chief Secretary if he has received any information to indicate the cause of the recrudescence of cattle driving on the Donore estate, in South Westmeath; whether that case is an isolated one; whether the lands in question are heavily mortgaged; whether the representatives of the owners first gave their consent to a sale of the middleman's interest and subsequently, after a sale by auction had taken place, revoked it; whether the landlord then resumed possession of the property by an exercise of the almost obsolete right of pre-emption, dispossessing the purchasers, who were a syndicate of small farmers in the neighbourhood; and can he state if it was the treatment referred to which has caused the state of things now existing there?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThis cattle drive will, I hope, prove to be an isolated one, but, as fourteen men are awaiting trial in connection with the case, it is obviously undesirable to discuss the motive of their action.