HC Deb 31 July 1890 vol 347 cc1369-70
MR. ELYNN

I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether Mr. John S. Collins was one of the jury who tried the case of Captain Richard Tonson Rye, J.P., D.L., who was charged at the present Cork Assizes for unlawfully firing at and wounding Jeremiah Corcoran; is he aware that a Mr. John S. Collins wrote a letter to the Cork Constitution, the local Conservative paper, on the 11th April last, in which he condemned the Magistrates at Farran Petty Sessions for having sent the case forward for trial; and is this Mr. Collins the same person as the Mr. Collins who served on the jury; and, if so, how did it happen that he was allowed to sit on a case which he had publicly prejudged?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN,) Dublin University

I have no means of obtaining information on the subject of this question. If it be true that Mr. Collins wrote the letter imputed to him, he proved himself to be eminently open to reason, for, having heard the evidence, he concurred in a verdict of guilty against Captain Rye.

MR. FLYNN

Is this man the Collins who wrote the letter; and, if so, why did not the Crown Solicitor instruct him to stand by, seeing that more than 30 challenges were made by the Crown?

* MR. MADDEN

I have already said that I have been unable to obtain the information.

MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)

Was it not the duty of the Crown Solicitor to prevent this man from serving on the jury?

* MR. MADDEN

Certainly it was, if the facts are true, but the fact I have been unable to find out is that he is the man who wrote the letter. Beyond all doubt if he had expressed an opinion one way or the other he ought not to have been on the jury.

MR. SEXTON

If I put a question on Monday will the right hon. Gentleman have sufficient opportunity to enable him to ascertain in the meantime if this was the same person?

* MR. MADDEN

I have no means of ascertaining.

MR. MAC NEILL

Is it not the fact that Captain Rye was charged with firing at and unlawfully wounding Corcoran, and that he was only tried for a common assault?

[No answer was returned.]