§ DR. TANNER (Cork Co., Mid)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been directed to a sentence imposed at New market Petty Sessions on last Friday, by Mr. O'Neill Segrave, R.M., and W. Monan, Esquire, upon a man named Daniel Pigott, of six months' imprisonment with hard labour; and, whether the statement made by Sergeant Walton, of the Royal Irish Constabulary, that the man was said to be of unsound mind, and was some time previously to have been sent to a lunatic asylum, will procure a medical investigation of the man's mental condition prior to the carrying out of the sentence?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. A. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I am afraid I cannot give the hon. Member any information on the subject at the present moment.
§ DR. TANNERWhen will it be convenient to the right hon. Gentleman to answer?
[No reply.]
§ DR. TANNER (appealing to the Deputy Speaker)Mr. Courtney, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman to be courteous enough to give me an answer?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe hon. Member is the last person in the House I should desire to be discourteous to. I cannot give any answer at present, as I have not got the requisite materials by me.
Subsequently, Dr. TANNER repeated the Question.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThis case was heard before Captain Segrave, R.M., and a local Justice of the Peace, Mr. Langford. Pigott was charged with having committed a most dangerous assault on his wife with a spade, causing serious injuries to her head. Sergeant Walton stated that the man had once been examined by a medical man, who refused to certify that he was not of sound mind, but that he (the sergeant) thought he was not always in his right senses. There does not appear to have been any evidence that he had been in a lunatic asylum. The sentence was as stated in the Question. Should the Prison Authorities have any reason to doubt the man's sanity, they will, of course, take such steps as they may deem necessary in his case.