§ Mr. Peasewished to ask the noble Lord, the Secretary for the Home Department, whether he had received a memorial, most numerously and respectably signed by the inhabitants of Hertfordshire, praying for a 951 mitigation of the sentence of death passed upon two men for murder, at the late Hertford assizes, and which had since been carried into execution. This memorial had been prepared under the conviction that those two men had not intended to commit murder. He wished also to know, whether the statement was correct that the learned judge, Mr. Baron Vaughan, who presided at the trial, was dissatisfied with the verdict, and that the jury, since the trial, had declared that they did not think the prisoners intended to commit murder.
§ Lord John Russellcould assure the hon. Member, that the information which he had received respecting the judge and jury who tried those prisoners was altogether incorrect. He had received a memorial on the subject most respectably signed, in consequence of which he had asked the learned judge who tried the prisoners to meet him at the Home-office. That learned judge assured him, that he was not only satisfied with the verdict, but that the Chief Justice, who was at Hertford at the time, and whom he consulted on the case, perfectly agreed with him in opinion. The learned judge, of course, mentioned all the circumstances of the case to him, and after fully considering those circumstances, he felt it to be his duty not to recommend the convicts to her Majesty for her merciful consideration.