§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the fact that Mr. Fordham in the North London Police Court on Tuesday last, in a case in which a boy was charged with misconduct, called up the father of the lad and told him that the law precluded him from administering a good flogging, and that he should have to send the boy to gaol for several months, but stated that if the father flogged the boy within the precincts of the Court, and if the gaoler reported to the magistrate that he had had a proper flogging, he would let him go; whether he is aware that Mr. Fordham told the father of the boy, who was reluctant to flog him, you must 35 give him twelve strokes with the birch-rod, nice, steady, full strokes; you must wait a little, however, for meanwhile the gaoler will put the birch in water to make it nice and pliable; and whether he will take any, and, if so, what, steps in relation to this incident.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I find on inquiry that the boy to whom the Question refers was convicted of indecent exposure with intent to insult three girls, which offence he did not deny. The magistrate, feeling that the offence could not be passed over without punishment, but being reluctant to send a boy of fifteen to prison, released him without imprisonment, on condition that his father birched him, which was done in the precincts of the Court. The father agreed that this was the proper punishment for the lad. I do not propose to take any action in the matter.