§ On the question that the House at its rising do adjourn to Monday,
§ MR. FERRANDrose to make some inquiries of the Home Secretary, in reference to the case of Mary Dawson, who had been imprisoned in the Wakefield House of Correction, and placed upon the treadmill, without having committed any offence or breach of the law. The hon. Member inquired what steps the Home Secretary had taken to obtain her release from prison? whether he intended to adopt any further proceedings in the case? and whether he had any objection to lay on the Table the correspondence between the Home Office and the committing magistrates?
§ SIR G. GREYhad obtained from the magistrates a copy of the warrant of commitment, and was advised on examination of it that it was an illegal commitment, on the ground of the magistrates having proceeded under one Act of Parliament, when they ought to have proceeded under another, as applicable to the charge. In regard to the merits of the case, he had no information whatever, and was not at all prepared to say that this person had committed no offence; she had been discharged solely on the ground that the commitment was under the 17th George III., c. 56, when it ought (assuming the charge to be proved) to have been under the 6th and 7th Victoria, c. 40.