§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he has given attention to the use which is now being made in Ireland of the statute passed in the year 1360 (34th Edward the Third, chapter one), and directed against robbers, pillagers, vagabonds, and persons of evil fame; whether it is the fact that the statute in question is being systematically applied to the arrest and imprisonment of ladies, and other persons of respectable position, who are subjected to twenty-two hours' solitary confinement out of every twenty-four; whether Mr. Clifford Lloyd, and other magistrates, have refused to allow ladies, and other persons arrested under this ancient statute, time to engage counsel and prepare defense, have thereby deprived them, in practice, of the right of appeal, and have heard their cases, and sentenced them in private; and, whether the Government in Ireland intend to continue to apply the statute of Edward the Third as it has been recently used?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe Act referred to is in force in England and Ireland; and magistrates, under that Act and in virtue of the commission of the peace, exercise the jurisdiction of holding to good behavior with sureties, or committing to prison in default, persons who have rendered them selves amenable to that jurisdiction. I am aware that several persons in Ireland of both sexes have been so dealt with. Persons so committed are treated in prison as untried prisoners, and under the Prison Rules are confined to their cells for 22 out of the 24 hours. Mr. Clifford Lloyd denies having heard any case in private. [Mr. SEXTON: Several.] Most of the few bail cases in which he has acted have, as a matter of fact, been appealed against, and his decision has been up- 1610 held by the Queen's Bench. The Government are carefully considering to what ends, and under what circumstances, the Act of Edward III. should henceforward be applied.
§ MR. SEXTONI shall put another Question on the subject on an early day.