§ MR. F. S. POWELL (for Lord CLAUD JOHN HAMILTON)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been directed to a recent decision of three of the magistrates of Folkestone in the case of James Coleman versus Olive Smithson and her mother; and whether, considering the apparent miscarriage of justice involved in their decision, he purposes calling the attention of the Lord Chancellor to the matter?
MR. BRUCE,in reply, said, that he had received various coommunications on this subject, including the depositions and reports of the magistrates, and it certainly did not appear to him that any case for his making a representation to the Lord Chancellor in respect to it 1498 had been made out. The magistrates, in deciding the case, had merely exercised the discretion which they undoubtedly possessed, and he was not prepared to say that they had exercised that discretion unwisely. If the inhabitants of Folkestone believed that the magistrates had acted unjustly or had shown partiality or gross ignorance in the matter, they could themselves make a representation on the subject to the Lord Chancellor.