§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that at Needham Market in Suffolk, on the 6th instant, the Local Magistrates sent to gaol two members of the Salvation Army, and that the prisoners were marched handcuffed through the streets as if they were felons; whether the prisoners were committed on a charge of obstructing a thoroughfare; whether they were sentenced on the evidence of a Police Inspector named Page, who swore that "one individual, Miss London, was obstructed by them;" whether he is aware that the said Miss London, who was never called as a witness by the police, wrote under date November 9 to The Suffolk Chronicle, in reference to this deposition—
Justice demands that I should give to this statement an absolute denial.… I was not obstructed;whether it is the fact that the prisoners were prosecuted by the police on the instructions of the same magistrates who tried and sentenced them; and, whether, if, on inquiry, he finds the facts as stated, he will consider the propriety of causing the remainder of the sentences to be remitted?
§ MR. ATKINSON (Boston)also asked, If the right hon. Gentleman's attention has been drawn to the fact that members of the Salvation Army have been handcuffed and taken through the streets at Market Needham for declining to give up preaching; and, whether he will order them to be released?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.), in reply, said, that as soon as his attention was called to the statement referred to be at once applied to those gentlemen for information on the subject. That information had not reached him as yet; but if the prisoners were handcuffed without due cause, he should certainly express his disapproval.