§ MR. ESCOTTrose to put a question to the right Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department, respecting the administration of justice in the city of Winchester. The information upon which he proposed to put this question was derived from intelligence which he had seen in the newspapers. The Times of that morning contained a paragraph, which doubtless had been copied from the Hampshire Independent. The paragraph stated, that the Recorder of Winchester had resigned his office; that no successor to that learned person had been appointed; that therefore the trials, which ought to have come on at the Easter sessions, had been infinitely postponed; and that the prisoners whose cases ought to have been disposed of still remained untried. He wished, in the first place, to know if a new Recorder had been appointed, and, if not, whether the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Home Department was prepared to suggest any means by which the existing inconvenience could be remedied?
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, that he also had seen the paragraph to which the hon. Member referred; but as to the facts he possessed no information beyond that which the newspapers furnished. The Easter sessions had been appointed to commence on Easter Monday. Upon the 31st of March, a few days previous to Easter Monday, the late Recorder of Winchester sent in his resignation. During the interval which elapsed between that day and the time appointed for holding the sessions, it was evidently impossible to effect the appointment of a successor to the learned gentleman who had just retired from office. No reference had been made to him on the subject by the authorities at Winchester, but he should lose no time in making inquiries.