§ MR. DELANYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that at the Maryborough Petty Sessions, hold on the 1st instant, Mrs. Brooks, wife of an evicted tenant on the M'Neale estate at Clonkeen, was fined 10s. and costs for an alleged assault, or in default seven days imprisonment with hard labour, and after termination of the above was ordered to find bail for good behaviour herself in £20, 661 and two sureties in £10 each, otherwise to remain in prison for a further period of six months; and whether, seeing that Mrs. Brooks is a woman of sixty-five years of age, in delicate health, with a family of ten children, and being unable to pay the fine or obtain bail has gone to prison, he will say what steps he proposes taking in this case in view of the character of the evidence for the prosecution.
MR. CHEERYI am informed by the police authorities that the facts are substantially as stated in the Question, save that Mrs. Brooks is not as old as she is represented to be, and is, I am happy to say, in fairly good health. She refused to pay the line and was conveyed to prison, but after spending two days in prison she telegraphed to her friends to pay the fine and procure the necessary sureties. This was done, and Mrs. Brooks was thereupon liberated.