§ Mr. MULDOONasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he can state to the House the circumstances under which John Dalton, convicted at the Winter Assizes in Limerick in December, 1911, of unlawful assembly and sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour, received a free pardon; whether Dalton served the term and unlawful imposition of hard labour; and whether he is aware that a similar mistake was made in 1871, when the late Baron Dowse was a Law Officer of the Crown in Ireland and took steps to have the illegal judgment annulled before the sentence was carried out?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe circumstances in connection with the conviction of, and grant of a free pardon to, John Dalton are fully set out in the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in answer to a question asked on the subject by the senior Member for Dublin University on 28th November last. Dalton, who was released six days before the expiration of his sentence, did not actually endure hard labour, as, on the recommendation of the medical officer of the gaol, that part of the sentence was not enforced. As regards the last part of the question, I understand that the action taken by the Crown, in the case to which the hon. Member refers, was with a view to having an erroneous sentence rectified and not to have it annulled. In that case, when application was made to the Courts, the parties were in prison undergoing their sentences, while in Dalton's case the Crown was not made 1369W aware of the informality in the sentence until after his discharge from prison.