§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEasked the Lord Advocate, Whether his attention has been called to the proceedings in the case of John Richard Dymond, sentenced by the Aberdeen Circuit Court on the 26th April 1872, to penal servitude for five years for a fraud upon the 1856 Scottish Legal Burial Society; and, whether there is any objection to the production of the precognitions taken in the case, for the information of the Royal Commission on Friendly Societies?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATESir, my attention was called some months ago to this case when the proceedings were originally instituted, and the matter was brought to trial in the ordinary Court of Justice, resulting in the conviction of the prisoner upon his own confession. I may say that it is against the rule for the Crown Office to produce the precognitions; but I have taken upon myself to order their production on some occasions where it might be done without detriment to the public service, and would serve some useful purposes. I have desired information in regard to this particular case, and I have to inform the right hon. Baronet that I think the present a suitable occasion for relaxing the ordinary rule, and therefore the precognitions for which he asks will be produced.