§ MR. O'SULLIVANasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, If his attention has been called to the report of the proceedings at the last Winter Assizes at Limerick, where a man named James O'Shea was sentenced to five years' penal servitude for a common assault on Lord Fermoy; if it is true that O'Shea pleaded guilty to the offence, and that it was the first charge that was ever brought against him; and if, under all those circumstances, he will allow the sentence to be carried out?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. GIBSON)In answer to the Question of the hon. Gentleman, I have to say that the prisoner, whose name is John, not James, O'Shea, who had been a tenant of Lord Fermoy, was convicted not of a common assault, but for an assault occasioning actual bodily 380 harm to Lord Fermoy. The assault was committed in the day-time on the steps of the Limerick Club House, the prisoner striking Lord Fermoy from behind on the head, close to the temple, with a stick. The full force of the blow was lessened by the hat which Lord Fermoy wore; but as it was he was knocked, down on his hands and knees, and rendered partially insensible. The prisoner, who was defended by a solicitor, pleaded guilty. The learned Judge who presided—Mr. Baron Dowse—before passing sentence, called Lord Fermoy and another witness, and heard their evidence; and, with a full knowledge of the facts, considered, in his judicial discretion, that the ends of justice demanded the punishment which he awarded. In reference to the last portion of the Question, I have to say that an Attorney General has no power to alter or control the sentences pronounced on [any prisoner; but from my knowledge of the learned Judge and the facts I have stated, I am sure he had ample grounds for the judgment which he pronounced.