§ COLONEL WARING (Down, N.)I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland (1) whether his attention has been drawn to the case of a man who was arrested near the town of Downpatrick, on the morning of Sunday the 21st March, by the constabulary under suspicions circumstances, and charged with, having burglariously entered the licensed premises and residence of James M'Cardell, in Downpatrick, and abstracted therefrom a bottle labelled whiskey, and that the prisoner, after being duly cautioned, admitted the burglary; (2) whether he is aware that upon being brought before a 922 local magistrate the prisoner was remanded till the next morning to a special Court, and that upon the prisoner being brought before the remanding magistrate at a special Court, four other Justices (two of them from a country district) attended, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the remanding local Justice and the clerk of the Petty Sessions, upon the representation of a solicitor appearing for the prisoner that he was not responsible for his acts, forthwith, upon evidence being given by a local medical practitioner, committed him as a lunatic to the asylum; and (3) whether the said Justices were warranted in so acting, instead of duly returning the prisoner for trial; and, if not, whether the attention of the Irish Lord Chancellor has been or will be drawn to the occurrence with a view to prevent a recurrence of such a practice?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.The facts are substantially as stated in the first and second paragraphs of the Question, save that the Special Court was composed of five Justices, all of whom reside in the Petty Sessions district in which the offence was committed, and usually sit at the Petty Sessions for that district, and also that the only remonstrance addressed to the magistrates, who decided unanimously, was addressed to them by the Petty Sessions Clerk alone. The magistrates should have returned the prisoner for trial; but, as there seems to be little doubt that the prisoner was not of sound mind when he committed the offence, and as, if he recovers, he will be liable to be re-arrested and committed for trial on the charge, justice will not be defeated, and the proceedings, though irregular, only amount to an error of judgment on the part of the magistrates and do not call for the intervention of the Lord Chancellor.
§ MR. J. GILHOOLY (Cork Co., W.)asked whether the right hon. and learned Gentleman was aware that the individual in question had been subsequently pronounced to be perfectly sane, with the result that those who had placed him in the asylum had had to bear the cost of his removal?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELANDThe information in my possession is directly to the contrary.