§ MR. FREELANDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the attention of Her Majesty's Government has been called to the case of an agricultural labourer in Hertfordshire, who, having been pre- 1136 viously convicted for stealing rabbits, was said to have been sentenced by the Magistrates of that county to three years' penal servitude for stealing a few sticks from a fagot-stack; whether there is any truth in the statement; and whether, if it be true, the Home Office will consider it a proper case for interference?
SIR GEORGE LEWISsaid, the attention of the Home Office had been drawn to the matter, and a Report had been asked for from the Chairman of Quarter Sessions, which had not yet been received.