§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the ease of Joseph 859 Comerford, who was sentenced by the magistrates at Belfast Police Court, on 31st May, 1886, to upwards of 21 months' imprisonment with hard labour for assaults committed on the one occasion; whether the extreme penalty which, according to the law in England, can be inflicted for such an offence is six months' imprisonment; whether Comerford has now been in gaol for double that period; and whether he will, under the circumstances, bring this case under the notice of the Lord Lieutenant?
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY (Colonel KING-HARMAN) (Kent, Isle of Thanet)(who replied) said, the facts appeared to be substantially stated in the Question. The assaults were, however, of a most serious character. They were five in number, and spread over two different periods of one day, the prisoner on the first occasion having effected his escape, on which occasion he seized the baton of a policeman, and with that weapon attacked the police, striking three of them on the head, and wounding one of them so seriously that he was unfit for duty. The prisoner was of previous bad character, there being 20 previous convictions recorded against him. The Lords Justices had had this case fully under review, and had decided that the law must take its course.