HC Deb 30 July 1883 vol 282 cc925-6
MR. HOPWOOD

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the following account in the "Cork Daily Herald" of July 16th:— To-day the police had the disagreeable duty of seizing a bed, the property of Mr. John Savage, sheriff's officer, Kinsale, in satisfaction of the amount of a decree for £1, at the suit of the Guardians of the Kinsale Union. It will be remembered that Mr. Savage appealed to the Recorder's Court, Cork, in the hope of setting aside the decision of the magistrates at Kinsale Petty Sessions, who fined him in the sum of £1 for refusing to have his child vaccinated. The Recorder confirmed the ruling of the Petty Sessions Court, and to-day the decree issued was executed by the police in the seizure as above stated. Mr. Savage offered to surrender to the alternative of a week's imprisonment, but was refused, and then offered his watch, but with the same result. This is the sixth seizure of Mr. Savage's goods for his resistance to the Compulsory Vaccination Law. It may be added that he has been 29 times summoned before the magistrates during the past six years; whether it be true that this man has been many times prosecuted and distrained upon; and, whether the Irish Local Government Board will follow the example of the English Board in its circular to the Evesham Guardians, and advise vaccinating authorities in Ireland to abstain from repeated prosecutions of the same individual?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, I am informed that the report is not altogether correct, as it was by Mr. Savage's own request that a bed was selected for seizure. The tender of his watch was made in joke. It is true that Mr. Savage's goods have been six times seized under similar warrants, and that he has been about 29 times summoned; but this number includes preliminary summonses to show cause why an order should not issue to have his child vaccinated as well as the final ones for disobedience of that order. I will consider the suggestion contained in the last part of the hon. and learned Member's Question.