§ MR. SEXTON(for Mr. J. E. REDMOND) (Wexford, N.)asked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether John Malone and Richard Magee, who were arrested and lodged in New Ross Police Station on the 21st February last, on a charge of insubordination, and who were on the following day brought before a magistrate, in a room of the police station, and by him sentenced to three months' imprisonment, were before sentence asked to give bail for their appearance at the then next Petty Sessions for the district; whether he will state the amount of bail required by the magistrate in each case; and, whether the prisoners declared that they were unable to give such bail?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. Holmes) (Dublin University), in reply, said, the prisoners had been inmates of the Now Ross Workhouse, and had raised no objection to their being tried by the magistrate. The charge against them was not insubordination. They were convicted under the Vagrancy Act for being found loitering for an illegal purpose; and the fact that the magistrate did not ask them could they give bail did not affect the legality of the decision.
§ MR. SEXTONasked, was not the magistrate bound, under the 22nd section of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, to call upon the prisoners to find bail; and, whether the failure to do so did not render the decision illegal?
§ MR. HOLMESsaid, the magistrate was not required to do so in the case in question.