§ MR. M'COANasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a sentence passed by the Oundle bench of magistrates on Thursday last, when Mr. George Gardiner, a tutor in the family of Mr. Monckton, J.P. was charged with "stealing" a jug of beer, valued at 6d. from the cellar of that gentleman, in view of the butler, and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment for the offence; and, whether, having regard to the relation of the parties, he will interpose his authority to mitigate the severity of such a sentence?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTThe author of this newspaper paragraph does not seem to have been aware that in a large establishment the "odd man" is called the "Usher of the Hall;" and, consequently, the odd man has become in this newspaper paragraph a tutor. This is an instance of the way in which sensational paragraphs are manufactured. Well, then, as to this "tutor," who was really the odd man, 619 It was found that there had been great depredations in the beer cellar, and that he had laid the blame upon the butler; but the butler hid himself behind the beer barrel, and he found the odd man or "tutor" stealing the beer, which he put into bottles and carried away. The "tutor" made his escape through a hole in the wall, but was followed and taken by the police, and he was brought before the magistrates, and, as I think, very properly, sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment. It was an ordinary case of theft by a servant, and this is the way in which newspapers paragraphs are manufactured, to create prejudice of this kind, and of which I have had, I may say, thousands of complaints.