§ MR. MASON (Lanark, Mid)asked the Lord Advocate, Whether a man named Ferrie was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment at Hamilton, on 9th April last, for breach of the peace; whether he had been in prison for 60 days' previous to trial; whether it is the law that he 242 could only have been sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment if he had been sent to summary trial at once; and, whether, considering that, seeing the sentence would appear to have been a heavy one, he will advise his release now?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. H. A. MACDONALD) (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities)The facts are as stated by the hon. Member. The offence was a serious one. The man Ferrie behaved with great violence and obstinacy. After a poker which he was brandishing in the street had been with difficulty taken from him, and when he was allowed to go, he re-appeared with a pair of tongs, and again acted with such violence that it was only after a severe struggle that he could be arrested and locked up. It was, in all probability, because of the long detention before trial that Crown Counsel finally ordered him to be tried summarily, it being thought that a sentence not exceeding 60 days, in addition to the 60 days already suffered, would be sufficient. I am not of opinion that three months in prison is at all an excessive punishment in the circumstances, and could not advise any remission.