§ MR. T. HARRINGTONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether it is true that at the Killarney Petty Sessions, held on Tuesday, 26th February, two young men of the peasant class were sentenced by Mr. A. J. M'Dermot, R. M., and Captain Massey, E. M., to find bail each in £40 and two sureties of £20 each, or to be imprisoned for six months and kept to hard labour, for being among a group of persons who cheered for Mr. William O'Brien; whether these young men are now in prison and undergoing hard labour; whether there is any precedent for sentencing a prisoner to hard labour in default of bail; and whether it is true that, in the case of one of these prisoners at east, the policeman who brought the 1158 charge swore that he did not hear the accused cheer, but saw him among the crowd that had cheered?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURTwo men, named Casey and Kelliher, were tried under the ordinary law before a Bench of Magistrates on which, in addition to the two Resident Magistrates named in the Question, there were two other Magistrates belonging to the district. They were tried for booing and abusing the constabulary under circumstances which made the charge a serious one. They were bound to be of good behaviour for six months or in default to be imprisoned, though not with hard labour, as is alleged in the Question. One of them was at once bailed out; the other was bailed out on the 1st inst.