§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the observations of Mr. Justice Murphy on the disagreement of a jury at the Connaught Assizes on Friday last, in which he states that the evidence established the case as clearly as any case which he had ever heard tried, and it only manifested that it is perfectly idle trying cases of this character in the way in which it is suggested they are to be tried now; and that it is a perfectly idle matter is known to the Constabulary, to the Crown Prosecutor, to the Crown counsel who prosecute, to the Attorney General who directs 1356 the prosecution; and that for crimes of this kind there is at present a perfect immunity; and if he can state what the nature of the case was which called forth these observations from the Judge?
§ MR. CARSON (Dublin University)At the same time, I may ask the right hon. Gentleman if his attention has been directed to the failure of justice in the case of a man named Healy, indicted for the boycotting of Patrick Dawson, at the present Winter Assizes at Sligo, and to the language of the learned Judge who tried the case and stated that the evidence established the case as clearly as any case that he had ever heard tried, and it only manifested that it is perfectly idle trying cases of this character in the way in which it is suggested they are to be tried now, and that it is a perfectly idle matter is known to the constabulary, to the Crown Prosecutor, to the Crown counsel who prosecute, to the Attorney General who directs the prosecution, and that for crimes of this kind there is at present a perfect immunity; whether he intends to take any steps to vindicate the law in this and other similar cases; and whether, if the case is tried again, he will take the necessary steps to have a trial before a special instead of a common jury?
§ MR. BRYCE (for Mr. J. MORLEY)With reference to this question, and also that which stands in the name of the hon. and learned Member for Dublin University on the same subject, the learned Judge is reported to have used the language mentioned at the trial of a man named Healy, who was tried at the Sligo Winter Assizes, under the 7th section of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1875, for besetting the house of a man named Dawson, with intent to injure his trade, in which case the jury disagreed. The statement of the learned Judge as to the views entertained by the Crown officials, Crown counsel, and the Attorney General respecting trials of this kind by jurors impannelled in the ordinary way is an assumption on his part which appears to me to be entirely conjectural. As regards the second paragraph of the question of the hon. and learned Member for the University, it would appear, from the language of the learned Judge employed at the same Assizes, that no circumstances calling for exceptional measures 1357 exist. I refer to the address he delivered to the Grand Jury of the County of Sligo, in which he, as reported, made use of the following observations:—
You are aware too well of the extent of country with respect to the crime of which you will have to inquire into at these Assizes. You have the Counties of Leitrim, Sligo, and Roscommon, and the county and town of Galway. Now, I am exceedingly happy to be able to tell you that, notwithstanding the formidable extent of some of them, still your labours will be light. From your own County of Sligo it is pleasing to note that there is only one case to go before you. From the County of Leitrim there is only one also, from Roscommon a few, from Mayo three or four, and from Galway five or six. There are none of these cases of that character which require any special observations from me to guide or aid you in any way in your investigation. The crimes are of an ordinary character, such as must, unfortunately, be expected to crop up in every county. There is nothing of the character of crime that calls for any special observations from me, or which shows evidence or indicates in any way an unsound or unhealthy state of things in the different counties.With regard to the last paragraph of the question of the hon. and learned Member for Dublin University, should the case be tried again, the Attorney General will, as usual, exercise his discretion as to the course to be pursued.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLThe point I desire information upon is this: According to the Judge's own statement a special class of crime is having a complete immunity. Is the Government willing that such a state of affairs should continue?
§ MR. SEXTONDid not the learned Judge state as a fact that there was only one case of any kind whatsoever from the County of Sligo.
§ MR. BARTON (Armagh, Mid)On the same matter, may I ask whether the learned Judge's statement has any bearing on the question whether the special jury provisions of the Crimes Act should be brought into operation, having regard to the failure of justice in this particular case?
§ MR. BRYCEI conceive that the observations of the learned Judge were very much in point. I believe it was true that this was the only case from Sligo; while, in answer to the hon. Member for Tyrone, I may say that the condition of the county and Connaught generally, as described by the learned Judge, appears to furnish a strong argument against taking any exceptional measures.
§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)May I ask whether it is not the case that the Court of Appeal in Paris has just decided that boycotting is no offence whatever?
§ [The question was not answered.]