§ MR. W. J. CORBETasked the Secretary of State for War, If he will inquire whether undue severity is used in inflicting corporal punishment on the boys in the Royal Hibernian Military School, Phoenix Park, Dublin; and if there is any foundation for a statement that a child of eight years of age, who was just discharged out of hospital, was beaten so severely for sharing his dinner with another boy that he fainted several times; and, if such should be the fact, by whose authority the punishment was inflicted?
§ MR. CHILDERSI have made inquiry into the statement referred to in the Question of the hon. Member for Wicklow, and I believe that whoever has made it to him has greatly exaggerated the circumstances of the case, which occurred in October last. But Sir Thomas Steele has appointed a Committee of the Governors to inquire into the discipline and mode of punishment in the school, and I shall give every attention to their Report when I receive it.