THE WESTMEATH INQUIRY.
The Westineath Committee, after all, sit, practically, with closed doors. The general public and the representatives of the press are excluded from its deliberations, " and," says the London correspondent of the Daily Express, "even the two or three members of the House who were present (at the first few sittings) were admitted, it is said, on the understanding that they would be silent as to all they saw." It appears that an effort was made at the first sitting by Mr Maguire, Mr M'Carthy Downing, and Mr Sergeant Sherlock (who has been nominated a member of the Committee in the room of the O'Conor Don) to throw open
the inquiry to the press. ; but it waa resisted by Lord Hartington (who has been chosen Chairman) and Mr Disraeli, and their respective followers, and was consequently unsuccessful. The London correspondents of some of the English papers furnish some information as to the proceedings of the Committee, and if this information be reliable it would appear that no very startling revelations have been made in reference to the social condition of Westmeath. The Irish Times' correspondent says that some reports on the state of the county were handed in By Lord Hartington on Monday, 20th March, and that Captain Talbot, R.M., gave on the same day some "childish evidence." " From Captain Talbot, the Marquis of Hartington s darkest herse," this correspondent adds, writing an that eventing, "astounding revelations were expected, and members, identified with Ireland, but not on the Committee, flocked to hear what the great R.M. had to say. His examination will be continued on Wednesday next, when the Committee again meet ; but it may, perhaps, be consolatory for him to know in the interval, that he has made little, if any, impression on those who heard his confused and foggy replies to questions which were neither conceived nor put in the clearest manner." Mr Chicbester Fortescue and Mr David Plunkett have been added to the Committee.
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Bibliographic details
Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 895, 9 June 1871, Page 4
Word Count
329THE WESTMEATH INQUIRY. Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 895, 9 June 1871, Page 4
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