§ MR. FLYNN (Cork Co., N.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether he is aware that at the Cork Summer Assizes within the past week, in the case of a man named Edward Horgan, indicted for a dangerous assault, twenty-seven or twenty-eight jurors were challenged by the representatives of the Crown; and will he say if this action had the sanction of the Irish law officer; and, seeing that in the case of Quartermaster Sergeant Rammage, of the Royal Engineers, indicted for breaking into the Sacristy of a Roman Catholic Church, no jurors were ordered by the Crown to stand by, will he explain why a different course was adopted in regard to this soldier.
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)The Crown solicitor, in setting aside twenty-eight jurors in the first mentioned case, acted strictly in accordance with the instructions issued to him in February, 1894. No special directions were given to him by the law officers. Jurors are only set aside where the Crown solicitor has reason to believe that, if sworn, they would not find a true verdict on the evidence. No such apprehension was entertained in the second mentioned case. The defendant was a complete stranger to the city and county of Cork. Moreover, counsel for the Crown advised the Crown solicitor that the charge against him could not be sustained in law, and by direction of the judge he was acquitted.
§ MR. FLYNNWas there any reason to believe that a true verdict would not be returned in Horgan's case?
§ MR. ATKINSONThe Crown solicitor must have had reason to believe that the jurors set aside would not return a true verdict.
135 Other hon. Members rose to put supplementary Questions, but were stopped by the Speaker.