MR. FITZROYsaid, he rose to put a question which, to make intelligible, he must preface with a short statement. He had himself brought in a measure to put a stop to attacks made on defenceless females. But since that Act was passed he had reason to believe that it was perverted to purposes to which it was never intended to apply, and such a case he believed had occurred now. He begged, therefore, to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a case which has recently occurred before the Wareham Petty Sessions, when a carpenter of the name of Craft was sentenced, under the Aggravated Assaults Act, to six months' imprisonment, with hard labour, for kissing the daughter of the Rev. H. C. Collins of Farringdon Rectory, Devon, on landing from a steamer between Poole and Swanage?
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, in answer to the question of his right hon. Friend, he had to state that his attention had not been called to the case; but if his right hon. Friend would cause the facts of the case to be laid before him in the ordinary way, he would look into it, and see if the Act of Parliament, of which his right hon. Friend was the author, required amendment, as might very possibly be the case.