§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Under secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been called to the apparently extreme severity of punishment to which certain prisoners were sentenced by the High Court of Madras on the 25th of April last, as reported in the "Overland Athenæum and Daily News" of the 27th, viz., Syed Ahmed, convicted of picking a pocket, sentenced to "two years' rigorous imprisonment and to receive fifty lashes;" Yagen, sentenced for stealing out of a carriage one of the carriage moons and a book, to "three years' rigorous imprisonment;" Syed Mahommed, convicted of breaking into a house and stealing two cloths, to "two years' rigorous imprisonment and fifty lashes;" and, whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the circumstances?
§ MR. E. STANHOPESir, the newspaper to which the hon. Member refers states the punishment to which these three prisoners were sentenced, and also, as it seems to me, the reasons for its being of a severe character. The first prisoner admitted three previous convictions, the second four, and the third two previous convictions. In these circumstances there is no intention of making any further inquiry into the matter.