HC Deb 19 July 1881 vol 263 cc1260-1
MR. MACDONALD

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he will lay upon the Table of the House the warrant, and the entry of the same, under which a widow named Mary Ann Trower was arrested on the 11th February 1879, and detained in Holloway Gaol until the evening of July 1st 1880, for contempt of court; and on what grounds the said Mary Ann Trower obtained her release; and, if he can furnish a statement of what constituted the contempt of court?

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

Sir, in this case there was an order of the Court of Chancery to do certain things. I presume the order was disobeyed, and then, according to ordinary practice, the person disobeying the Court was committed to prison as a first-class misdemeanant. When the order was satisfied, the person was discharged. That, I understand, was done in this case.