CATTLE=DRIVING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 7

CATTLE=DRIVING.

PRACTICE DENOUNCED. MR. BALFOUR DEMANDS THE CRIMES ACT. JURIES THAT WILL NOT CONVICT. Br TELEGRAPH—fBESS ASSOCIATION —COPTKIGHT. (Rec. Dec. 10, 9.5S p.m.) London, December 10. Mr. Balfour, Lender of the Opposition, addressing a largo /meeting at Devonport, sevorely condemned the Government's misgovernmont of Ireland. Ho declared that the reason why Mr. Birrell (Chief Secretary for Ireland) was unable to obtain the conviction of the cattledrivers, was because he refused to put the Crimes Act into operation. " Ministers," said Mr. Balfour, " havo become the slaves of their own perorations. Thoy would rather see the law flouted than recant their rash speeches." London, December 9. Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., and Mr, Timothy Healy, • M.P., strongly denounce cattle-driving. Seventeen persons wero tried at Leinster on charges of unlawful assembly, but the jury disagreod. A jury of the Munstor Assizes declined to convict three prisoners on charges of manslaughter. One of the accused had been seon striking the deceased, and all wore identified.

The Crimes Act, of 1882, is an Act empowering the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to suspend jury trial in disturbed districts, and to send agrarian cases for trial by a commission of threo judges, with an, appeal to the Court of Criminal Cases . Reserved. Power of search was given to the police in proclaimed districts, arid, further, power to arreftt and remove stiangors thought' dangerous to public safety. Tho Crimes Act, of 1887, is an Act to repress the lawlessness of tho Irish Land League. It gave. power to the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim the affected districts, and to suppress seditious gatherings and unlawful associations. It also provided for change of venue in cases where a fair trial could not be rolied upon under ordinary conditions. Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Healy ]iave had serious differences with tho Nationalist following of Mr. John Redmond, but of late thore have been rumours of i> bettor understanding. ':This thought," writes • a Nationalist correspondent to an English paper, "has heen given expression to by Cardinal Logue, and, although the Archbishop of Armagh is known to bo a Healyite, it will have a good deal of influence. The difficulty is that tlio great majority of Nationalists regard Mr. Healy as an/inve'terate wrecker, and Mr. O'Brien as a man who has attacked his late colleagues in a way that can never be forgotten." Cases of, sympathetic magistrates refusing informations, and of juries refusing to convict when informations are granted, are continually being related by English correspondents iH Ireland. One of them. states that four cattlo raiders were arrested at Carrick-on-Shannon for participating in the stampede of "proscribed" cattle in the streets of tho town, during the period when tho Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland was sitting inv iI. ■>" town.' Tho raid, says tho correspondent, was arranged deliberately for the benefit of lie Commissioners, and it was witnessed by t:ie chairman, Lord Dudley, from an hotel window. The magistrates refused informations.