§ MR. DEERINGasked of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, "whether it be his intention to enforce the discretionary power vested in him by the Act 7th and 8th of Victoria, c. 126, where an asylum for pauper lunatics shall not have been begun upon before August next in any county of England, the funds for defraying the expense of the same being forbidden by the same statute, as well as by the Act 9th and 10th of Victoria, c. 84, to be raised at a higher rate of interest than 5 per cent; or whether he means to re-serve such exercise of his intervention until moved to do so through the medium of presentment by the local authorities?"
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, in answer to the hon. Gentleman, he had to state that the Act placed a discretionary power in the 531 hands of the Secretary of State to take measures for compelling justices to do their duty; and that when the Act came into operation he trusted he should be found exercising that discretion in such a manner as would be beneficial to the public.