§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY (Londonderry)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if his attention has been called to a report in the Derry Journal of a case before the Derry Magistrates, on the 5th of last December, in which two boys were charged with throwing stones at the police, and in which one boy, named M'Daid, was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment, and the other, named Clifford, to 14 days' imprisonment, and also to five years' confinement in a reformatory: whether the charge against Clifford was merely that he had aided and abetted M'Daid; whether the police constable who made the charges said that he saw Clifford among the other boys, but he did not see him throwing any stone; and whether, under the circumstances, he will take steps to have that part of the sentence on Clifford which relates to confinement in the reformatory remitted?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURHaving regard to the previous convictions of Clifford, one of which also involved detention in a reformatory in 1886, remitted subsequently on memorial, it would not appear to be for the young offender's benefit that he should now be discharged.