§ MR. J. W. BARCLAYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been directed to a recent case where two boys charged with a petty offence of malicious mischief were taken a distance of over twenty miles for trial at Forfar, and, being there convicted and sentenced to six stripes with a birchen rod, were sent 205 to Perth, a further distance of twenty-five miles, for infliction of the punishment; and, whether simpler arrangements might not be made for the administration of justice?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, this Question had only been put down last night, and he had asked the Lord Advocate to inquire into it.
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)The punishment of whipping is subject to strict regulations issued in 1862, under which it must be inflicted in prison in presence of the surgeon of the prison and of the keeper or Governor. The prison at Forfar was discontinued on the 15th of August last, under the Act of 1877; and the prison at Perth is now the prison for convicted Forfarshire prisoners, so that it was necessary to send the boys there. If the local authorities at Forfar had cells legalized for prisoners it would be proper that the punishment of whipping should be carried out there, and I would consider whether any alteration would be required upon the terms of the existing Rules in order to authorize this.