§ MR. COBB (Warwickshire, Rugby)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that it has been the practice of some of the magistrates on the Edgeware Bench to sign summonses in blank, at the request of the magistrates' clerk, Mr. W. A. Tootell, leaving it to him to insert the names of the persons summoned, and their alleged offences, as occasion may in his opinion require; whether any conviction under such a summons is legal; how long this practice has been in force, and when the last summons was signed in blank; and whether he will call upon the Chairman of the Bench to forward to the Lord Chancellor the names of the magistrates who have followed this practice?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS, Birmingham, E.)I am informed by the Chairman of the Justices that it has been the practice of all the magistrates in the division in question more or less during the last 40 years occasionally to sign summonses to be filled up by the clerk, not as occasion might require, but as the nature of the complaint might justify. This course has been adopted only where convenience of the complainant would be affected, owing to the distance of his residence from that of the Justice or from other good cause. I have no authority to give an opinion on the question of law contained in the second paragraph. I propose to communicate to the Lord 565 Chancellor, to whom jurisdiction belongs, the facts as I have ascertained them.