§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Under what statute Joseph B. Walsh, at present detained in Kilmainham Prison, could be sentenced, if convicted of the charge of which he is now said to be reasonably suspected, to seven years' penal servitude or three years' imprisonment; and, whether the statute applies to England?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. LAW)The sentence would be under the statute 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 44, s. 6, if imprisonment were awarded in the punishment of the offence, or under that enactment and the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, if it was a sentence of penal 463 servitude. The former Act does not apply to England. The latter is, of course, applicable to the whole United Kingdom.
§ MR. A. M. SULLIVANIs the first Act which the right hon. and learned Gentleman mentioned one of those known as the Whiteboy Acts?
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORI beg to give Notice that I shall, on Monday, ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether the offence of which J. B. Walsh is said to be reasonably suspected, and for which he is liable to be detained in Kilmainham Prison for 18 months, would not, if committed in England, come under the picketing section of the Conspiracy Act, and if the maximum penalty for that offence is not three months' imprisonment, and if the Whiteboy Acts, under which J. B. Walsh would be liable to the heavy sentences mentioned by the Attorney General for Ireland be not one of those statutes which, among other barbarous penalties, enforce periodic floggings?