§ MR. M. McCARTAN (Down, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether his attention has been called to the deportation of a pauper lunatic, named John Smith, from Glasgow to the workhouse at Banbridge, County Down, on the 14th February 1896; whether the attendants who accompanied him used handcuffs; whether there was any legal warrant for sending Smith under restraint to the workhouse; and, whether he will consider the existing law as to deporting from England and Scotland to Ireland natives of Ireland who have spent the best days of their lives in England or Scotland and then become paupers, and will introduce a Bill to have the law on this subject amended?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralThe medical certificate which accompanied the removal warrant in the case of this man described him as a dangerous lunatic suffering from homicidal mania, and he was accompanied to Ireland by two attendants who had been instructed to use handcuffs if necessary. I presume the Scotch authorities were actuated by humane reasons in using restraint in the removal of the man, and the mere fact of his being a lunatic would not render his removal illegal provided a certificate was given, as in the present case, that he would not suffer bodily or mental injury by being removed. Smith was sent to the District Lunatic Asylum upon his arrival at Banbridge. I am not in a position to say whether I shall be able this Session to introduce legislation in the direction suggested, as the matter is still the subject of correspondence between the authorities in Ireland, England and Scotland, and must await the result of this correspondence.