§ Mr. Speaker informed the House that he had received the following letter relating to the imprisonment of a Member:
§ Sligo County Petty Sessions Office,
§ Courthouse, Sligo,
§ 23rd March, 1919.
§ Sir,
I am directed by the Justices to report that Mr. Alexander McCabe, of Ballymote, County Sligo, Member of Parliament for the South Division of the County of Sligo, was charged before Captain Frederick FitzPatrick, R.M., and Mr. R. W. Glass, R.M., at a Court constituted under The Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, at Sligo County Petty Sessions, on Friday, the 19th instant, for—That, on the 5th day of October, 1919, at Ballinacarrow, in the County of Sligo, being a district in which an association known by the name of the Dail Eireann has been prohibited under and by virtue of The Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, the said Alexander McCabe did unlawfully solicit contributions for the purposes of the said association contrary to the Statute and Orders thereunder in such case made and provided.
§ The Court ordered Mr. McCabe to forthwith enter into a recognisance himself in the sum of £50 with two sureties in the sum of £25 each conditioned that he be of good behaviour towards all His Majesty's subjects for a period of 12 months, and in default of entering into said recognisance he was ordered to be imprisoned in Sligo prison for a period of three months without hard labour.
§ Mr. McCabe declined to enter into the recognisance.
§ I have the honour to be,
§ Sir,
§ Your obedient servant,
§ ANTHONY BURKE,
§ Clerk of Sligo County Petty Sessions.
§ The Right Honourable J. W. Lowther, P.C.,
§ Speaker of the House of Commons,
§ House of Commons,
§ London.