§ MR. WALTER LONG (Dublin, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state the total number of persons proceeded against for offences under Section 2 of the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, on the last occasion when the provisions of the section were operative; the results of such proceedings; the number of cases in which appeals were taken from the decisisons of resident magistrates, and the results of such appeals; and the number of persons in respect of whom cases were stated for the opinion of the High Court of Judicature, with results.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) Proclamations under Section 2 of the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act were last in force from 16th April, 1902, to 14th July, 1903. Several prosecutions, however, took place under Subsection 3 (a) of Section 2 in which case a proclamation is not necessary, between 13th August, 1901, and the issue of the proclamations on 16th April, 1902. Between 13th August, 1901, and 21st January, 1903, when the last of the prosecutions took place, the total number of persons proceeded against under Section 2 was 189, of whom 129 were convicted, forty-three discharged, and seventeen ordered to find sureties. Appeals were taken in the case of fifty-four persons, the results being that as regards twenty persons the decision was affirmed, as regards thirty the sentence was reduced, and in the case of the remaining four persons the decision was reversed. Cases were stated for the opinion of the High Court in four cases comprising seventeen defendants. In three of the cases the magistrates' decisions were upheld, and in the remaining case the decision was upheld as regards one of the three defendants and reversed as regards the other two.