§ MR. SHEEHY (Galway, S.)I beg to. ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether he is aware that in a case tried at Kenvara, County Galway, on the 9th instant, a little boy of about 12 years of age was sentenced by Mr. Mayne, R.M. to a month's imprisonment for knocking down the fence of a farm from which his father had been evicted; whether he is also aware that the Magistrate postponed signing the committal warrant for one month, to see if the fence was again interfered with, and declared that if even the present holder of the farm, a man named Fahy, knocked down the fence, he (the Magistrate) would sign the committal warrant of this child; and whether this proceeding by the Magistrate is legal?
§ MR. MADDENI am informed that the present tenant of the evicted farm referred to has received constant annoyance and considerable loss by reason of the farm walls being maliciously knocked down, and his sheep, in consequence, permitted to stray. The evicted tenant's son, who is represented as being apparently between 12 and 14 years of age, having been found, after a previous caution, in the act of pulling down the walls was proceeded against. The facts are not accurately represented in the second paragraph. There was, as a matter of fact, no committal warrant prepared, nor did the Magistrate make the declaration alleged. The Resident Magistrate did out of consideration for the defendant's age, and as it appeared that he was merely the instrument of others much older than himself, hesitate to send him to prison, and he accordingly adjourned the case, intimating that, if the walls were again interfered with, the adjourned charge would be again gone into.