HC Deb 24 March 1892 vol 2 cc1696-7
MR. CONYBEARE

I beg to ask the Home Secretary whether it is the fact that on Saturday last James Mahoney was charged before Sir Peter Edlin, at the Newington Sessions, with intimidation in connection with the bookbinders' strike; whether the jury disagreed and were discharged after being in the box for four hours; did Sir Peter Edlin say he was willing to accept bail for Mahoney; is it the fact that as Mahoney's sureties were absent (through the disagreement of the jury not having been anticipated) the prisoner was remanded to Holloway Gaol; did Mr. W. M. Thompson apply on Monday to Sir Peter Edlin at Clerkenwell to allow the bail to be justified there; and did Sir Peter refuse to discuss the matter, and was a similar application made later in the day by Mr. Bond; and is it the fact that on this occasion Sir Peter Edlin walked out of the Court while the applicant was speaking; is it the fact that on Wednesday the sureties applied personally to Sir Peter, who then again postponed the matter, and that Mahoney is still in gaol; is not such detention, in face of the fact that bail is forthcoming, and was as a fact accepted in the first instance by the Judge, a gross violation of the Common Law and of Magna Charta, and will he use his influence to procure that the man shall be at once released?

MR. MATTHEWS

I am informed by Sir Peter Edlin that the jury disagreed and were discharged after three hours in Mahoney's case. Sir Peter Edlin offered to admit the defendant to bail, but no bail was forthcoming on that day, and the defendant was sent to Holloway. On Monday Mr. Thompson made application to have bail allowed. Sir Peter Edlin was engaged in trying another case and declined to interrupt it in order to hear him then. Mr. Thompson did not apply again, and Sir Peter Edlin knew nothing of any application by Mr. Bond. On Tuesday Sir Peter Edlin informed a person, who said he was one of the bail, that notice should be given to the prosecutor and the Clerk of the Peace at Newington. He has always been willing to admit Mahoney to bail if the proper steps were taken according to the Statutes which regulate the subject.