MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY (Londonderry City)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, When he has yet instituted the further inquiry, which he promised on a former occasion, into the case of the boy Bernard Kerr, convicted at Londonderry City Petty Sessions, on the 29th of December last, of stealing some small pieces of pig-iron, and sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment and five years in a reformatory; whether the boy has been found to be of weak intellect; whether he is still in Derry gaol, in hospital; and, whether he is now prepared to recommend the remission of what remains of the sentence?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)The medical officer of the prison reports that he has examined the juvenile offender referred to, and that he is not of weak intellect. At no time has he been under treatment in the prison hospital. He has been treated for bronchial asthma; and the medical officer has advised his remaining in the prison until the weather becomes sufficiently fine to admit of his undertaking the long journey to the reformatory. I do not see that these circumstances would afford grounds for recommending his discharge.