§ MR. PARNELLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Mr. Hodnett, junior, has been found guilty, at the Petty Sessions, by Mr. Plunkett, the stipendiary magistrate, of six different offences committed in connection with the attempted rescue of Mr. Mahony, and sentenced for each offence to a month's imprisonment, making six months alto- 25 gether; whether one of the results of this cumulative sentence will be that Mr. Hodnett will have to sleep on a plank bed during the whole period of these six months; and, whether he approves of the infliction of cumulative sentences of imprisonment by Courts of Petty Sessions in Ireland?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, that Mr. Hodnett, junior, on the 4th June, was the leader of a riotous mob at Clonakilty which rescued Mr. O'Mahony from the police, he having been arrested under the Coercion Act. Hodnett was convicted at the petty sessions on the 1st July for assaulting two constables on that occasion, and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for each assault. The police were again attacked on the 7th June by a mob, led by Hodnett, and he was convicted of assaulting four constables on that occasion, and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for each assault. The effect of the sentence was that he would have to sleep on a plank bed for one month out of the six months only. It was not his (Mr. Forster's) business to approve or disapprove of these sentences, as the magistrates acted legally, and he could not review their decisions.
§ MR. PARNELLasked who had the authority to review them?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, the Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, and the Queen in England; but they only interfered in very rare cases.