§ MR. J. D. FITZGERALDsaid, that he understood that the Commissioners to inquire into the subject of Lunacy in Ireland had made their Report, but that one of the Commissioners dissented from the others, and had given his reasons in a Report of his 2037 own. He wished to ask the Home Secretary if that Report would be laid on the table?
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, that with reference to the question of the right hon. and learned Gentleman (Mr. J. D. FitzGerald), he really wished that when Commissions were issued the Commissioners would agree upon their Report. It was not fair to the majority who concurred in a Report that an individual Commissioner should afterwards send in a separate Report which his colleagues, perhaps, had no opportunity of seeing. He had received the Report of Dr. Corrigan, and the question it involved was so important, that he would undertake to lay it on the table of the House. With reference to the subject commented on by the hon. Member for Swansea (Mr. Dillwyn), he agreed with him that the subject to which he had alluded was one requiring the strictest attention of the Home Secretary. The statement made by the hon. Gentleman was quite correct. The aggravated assaults of which he had made mention were less numerous this year than they were in 1854 and 1855, but somewhat more numerous than they were in 1857; but it was desirable to analyse these offences before drawing any general conclusion. A great many of them were assaults not upon women, but upon children, and an immense number of them were assaults by women, and not by men. Another circumstance to be borne in mind was, that in many districts, even in the last year for which he had returns, there was a great diminution of these offences, while in others there was an increase. As far as he had been able to form an opinion from the information with which he had been furnished, he had reason to think that the present Act, which he believed was introduced by the noble Viscount opposite (Viscount Palmerston), had worked well, and if it required any addition, he would be prepared, after inquiry, to state in what respect he thought it should be amended. In the meantime, however, his attention would be strictly turned to the subject, but he owned that he should not like, unless constrained to do so by the strongest reasons, to have recourse to corporal punishment.