§ MR. CONYBEARE(for Mr. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM) (Lanark, N.W.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Deparment, Whether his attention has been directed to the painful case of George Williams, convicted at the last Cambridge Assizes of stealing food valued at 8d., and sentenced to five years' penal servitude; and, whether, although there were two previous convictions against this man, he can, under the circumstances, see fit to remit any portion of the sentence?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I have obtained a Report from the learned Judge on this case. From this it appears that the prisoner had five previous convictions, of a character which indicates a consistent and habitual course of crime for the last 14 years. Under these circumstances, the learned Judge thought penal servitude was better, both for the community and the prisoner himself, than a shorter sentence. It is not a case on which I should advise any remission, as I see no reasonable hope of the 1761 prisoner leading an honest life if it were granted.