§ MR. MARUMasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, in reference to the case of the Rev. Thomas Feehan, C.C. now detained in Mary borough Gaol, in default of entering into bail for good behaviour, his attention has been called to the following circumstances:—That the High Court of Justice of the Queen's Bench in Ireland has, upon application for a certiorari, with the view to have the committal quashed, granted a conditional order, on the ground of the rejection of legal evidence in the Court below, that is to say: the refusal to hear the reverend defendant himself, as a witness on his own behalf, in order to show cause why he should not be put under a rule of bail; that one of the three presiding justices, viz. myself, dissented from such ruling, hut, upon asking counsel for the reverend defendant for some authority for the procedure, was informed that none existed upon the point, although the Statute of Edward III. under which the proceedings were laid, 1822 has been in operation for over five hundred years; that it is laid down in Coke's Institutes, 4, p. 181, that bail under the Statute shall be demanded for "the prevention of offences before they be done," and therefore the reverend defendant was a competent witness on his: own behalf, and should have been heard; that the reverend defendant has now been in custody for upwards of one month, and his curacy has lapsed in his regard, inasmuch as another clergyman has been appointed in his absence to the mission of Rathdrasay; and, whether, under all the circumstances of the case, he will consult the Law Officers of the Crown; and if, in their opinion, the committal and detention be not warranted in Law, he will forthwith take proper steps to have the Rev. Thomas Feehan at once released from prison, instead of being obliged to await the dilatory process incidental to a decision of the Court of Law?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER,in reply, said, a Provisional Order had been granted by the Queen's Bench for a review of the question of the legality of this gentleman's detention. The matter had been decided by the Court as the proper tribunal, and it was impossible for the Irish Executive to interfere.