§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEwished to know if the Government were aware that the Whitechapel county court apparently had the power of committing any person owing a small sum, which he was not able to pay, to prison for contempt of court, that contempt being his inability to meet his debt, and that, upon that ground, he might be committed to gaol for a certain number of days? He put this question in connexion with the case of Mr. Pollett, which he had recently brought under the notice of the House. From information he had since received, it would appear that this was not at all an isolated case. An instance equally flagrant had just come to his knowledge, in which a man who owed 2l. 10s., and was found unable, when brought before the Clerkenwell court, to pay that sum, was exposed to somewhat similar treatment. He stated, that, after being committed to the gaol, he was dressed in prison clothes and compelled to walk about the yard among all the vagabonds and thieves; that he was put to pick oakum, and dealt with in every respect as a criminal. Cases of such gross cruelty ought to receive the immediate attention of Government; and if it really was within the power of a county court to commit an unfortunate man to prison on the ground of contempt of court, merely because, at the particular moment, he might find himself unable to discharge the full amount of the debt, it was quite obvious that the law ought to be so far modified as to give to the individual in humble station that protection under such circumstances which was already well secured to the members of the higher classes.
§ SIR G. GREYwas not in a position just 1143 now to state whether or not the judges of the county courts did possess powers to an extent to which, from the statement of the hon. Gentleman, they would appear to have been exercised. There was no doubt, however, that they were empowered to commit to prison fraudulent debtors for a limited period; and they had also powers to commit those who, on being summoned for a debt, were found to have improperly expended the money which, in justice, belonged to their creditors. In such cases it should be understood the committal was not on account of mere inability to pay, but on the ground of bad conduct. With regard to the particular case adverted to by the hon. Gentleman, that of Mr. Pollett, he had only to say that he had called attention to the regulations which were required to be enforced in all the prisons of the county, and which, had they been duly observed, would, he thought, have prevented Mr. Pollett being treated as a felon.
§ Conversation dropped.