MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of two men named Bellew and Fitzgerald, who were convicted at Liverpool at the last Assizes held there for the offence of boycotting, charged as a conspiracy at common law to injure the trade of a farmer Frizell; whether he is aware that they were sentenced by Mr. Justice Grantham to three months' imprisonment with hard labour; whether that sentence is now being carried out, and they are undergoing hard labour at Walton Gaol, Liverpool; and whether it is lawful to impose a sentence of hard labour for a conspiracy at Common Law, and under what statute or other authority can such a sentence be imposed?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes. Sir; these men were convicted under the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, and the sentence of three months with hard labour imposed by the Judge is in accordance with the provisions of that statute. This sentence is now being carried out at Walton Gaol.