§ SIR JOHN HAYasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether Members of both Houses of Parliament, like all other male subjects of Her Majesty, are liable to corporal punishment, if convicted of committing offences punishable under the 7 and 8 Geo. 4; 14 and 15 Vic.; 24 and 25 Vic.; and 26 and 27 Vic.; and, whether Her Majesty's Government have any intention of repealing those Acts?
§ CAPTAIN PRICE,before the Question was answered, wished to know, Whether the punishment of the pillory had not been abolished as a relic of a barbarous age, and whether the proposal to attach a soldier to the tail of a cart was not equally barbarous?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES),in reply, said, the right hon. and gallant Admiral had unintentionally added to the labour of answering the Question by not giving any chapters, and so rendering it necessary to refer to many hundreds of Acts of Parliament. He (the Attorney General) supposed the offences punishable under the statutes would be acts of violence, and his answer to the first portion of the Question would be in the affirmative—that Members of Parliament, in common with all other persons, were equally liable to corporal punishment. He was not aware that any Member of Her Majesty's Government had any apprehension that in consequence of the existence of these laws, any Members of Parliament were likely to be subjected to corporal punishment; and he did not understand that there was any intention to repeal them. He did not know whether the putting of the Question had any reference to legislation affecting our soldiers and sailors; but the Government had no intention of repealing the Acts mentioned in the Question, because they did not see any analogy between garotting and the offences against Army and Navy discipline. In reply to the Question of the hon. and gallant Member for Devonport (Captain Price), he could see no such connection between the pillory and the summary punishment now proposed in the Army as would render the latter a violation of the Act which abolished the pillory.
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORasked, Whether it was not a fact that Acts existed for Ireland allowing the infliction of corporal punishment and other barbarous punishments for crimes other than those in the Act referred to?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)suggested that the hon. Member should give Notice to his right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General for Ireland.
§ MR. T. P. O'CONNORthereupon addressed his Question to the latter.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. Law)I understand the hon. Member to ask, are there Acts in force in Ireland providing corporal punishment? Yes; there are.