The Committee on the Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Bill was
resumed on Thursday, the debate turning chiefly on a proposal of Mr. Davey's to omit treason and treason-felony from the list of crimes which the Viceroy is authorised to try by Commission and without a jury. Mr. Davey argued that, in the first place, there have been hardly any prosecutions during the last ten years for these offences, and, therefore, that a new law on the subject can hardly be necessary ; and next, that the protection of trial by jury is more needful for men accused of political crimes than for those accused of any others. Mr. Bryce, and even Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, supported this view, so that the Government can by no means command the adherence of all their own supporters on the matter,—which, however, is not, we believe, nearly so important as the Irish Members choose to contend. It is clear, we think, that treason and treason-felony should not have been included in the offences to be tried without a jury, but it is by no means a question of the first importance whether these offences be struck out or not. The vehement resistance of the Irish party resulted, however, in the adjournment of the debate on this clause, at one o'clock on Thursday night.
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