§ MR. SEXTONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Lord Lieutenant having, without any application from prisoner, "remitted" the hard labour imposed upon Mr. Edward Harrington, M.P., the so-called remission, whilst making no change in his employment, has had the effect of aggravating his punishment, by depriving him of four ounces of meat and half a pint of milk per day; and whether, as Mr. Harrington is now declared entitled to receive visits, and as his wife, who resides at Tralee, has to travel 529 miles to and from Tullamore in order to pay him a visit, he will be sent back to Tralee Prison for the residue of his term of six months, no cause having been stated for his removal from Tralee; and perhaps I may explain that the object of the question is to show that the supposed leniency of the Lord Lieutenant in relieving Mr. Harrington of hard labour has the effect at the same time of depriving him of four ounces of meat daily?
§ *MR. MADDENThe Prisons Board report that the difference between the employment of prisoners sentenced to hard labour and those not so sentenced is not always in the nature of the labour, but in the quantity exacted from the prisoner. The statement in the question as to the reduction of food in Mr. Harrington's case by reason of the remission of hard labour is incorrect. Prisoners are not allowed meat daily, and there is no difference whatever in the quantity of meat per week allowed to a prisoner whether sentenced to hard labour or not in that class in which Mr. Harrington 1719 is; but those not sentenced to hard labour are allowed daily a quarter of a pint less milk than those sentenced to hard labour. The distance by rail from Tralee to Tullamore is not correctly stated. It is about 182 miles. The Prisons Board see no sufficient ground to re-transfer Mr. Harrington to Tralee.
§ MR. SEXTONI should like to ask whether it is not a fact that Mr. E. Harrington himself, who ought to know best, has made a statement to a person who interviewed him within the last three days, that he has lost the four ounces of meat daily; and also whether Mr. Harrington's wife travelled from Tralee to visit him, and was prevented from doing so by the unauthorized action of the Prisons Board, and whether she is now to make that journey again?
§ *MR. MADDENThe Chief Secretary has already answered the latter part of the question, and stated that the error has been rectified. As to the statements made by the right hon. Gentleman in the first part of his question I know nothing, but I have given the information supplied to me from the best source available to me—namely, the information given me by the Prisons Board.