RETURN MOVED FOR. (Hansard, 18 March 1858)

§ MR. BRADY
said, he rose to move for an Address for a Return of the expenses attendant on the prosecution of the Royal British Bank Directors. He said, he thought it high time that the directors of public companies should be made to feel that the public watched their proceedings with the greatest attention, and that all defaulters connected with them and men who violated the laws of the country would be punished with the greatest severity. 397 The directors of the Royal British Bank were in comparative happiness—they were in Her Majesty's prison. As regarded the late trial, it appeared that there were no less than 300 witnesses, each of whom was subpœnaed three times, and not more than sixteen of them were actually examined. One reason for desiring the Return he moved for was, because he deemed the penal law as it stood to he in a most unsatisfactory state, and he was of opinion that it must necessarily come under the consideration of the House in a very short time. The hon. Gentleman concluded by moving an Address for a return of the expenses attendant upon the prosecution of the directors of the Royal British Bank.

§ MR. G. A. HAMILTON
said, that the information which the hon. Gentleman asked for was not yet in the possession of the Treasury. When that information was furnished to the Treasury, he did not think that there would be any objection to furnishing the Return moved for by the hon. Gentleman.

§ MR. CRAWFORD
said, he wished to take that opportunity of directing the attention of the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the Home Department to the tables of allowances to witnesses recently issued by the Treasury. He had presented a petition from an unfortunate gentleman who, after losing all his property in the bank, was summoned as a witness from the country, and remained in London for fifteen days, and at the close of that time, having never been examined, he was tendered by way of expenses 3d. a mile, or second-class fare for travelling expenses, 3s. 6d. a day for personal expenses in London, and 2s. 6d. a night for lodging. Of course the actual expenses of this unfortunate gentleman far exceeded the allowance. He was sure that the continuance of such a scale of payment by the Government would have a most prejudicial effect on the administration of criminal justice by inducing parties to conceal the information in which they were in possession, rather than incur the loss consequent upon attending as witnesses.

§ MR. WALPOLE
said, that several cases had been represented to him, in 398 which it was clear that the scale of allowances to witnesses in criminal prosecutions was disproportionately low. He had therefore given instructions that the scale should be revised in order to see whether a better one could not be adopted. The case adverted to by the hon. Member who had last spoken had come before him on the previous evening. On consideration he was of opinion that the new scale of fees did not apply to witnesses on ex-officio indictments, and he had given directions that the witnesses on the British Bank case should be paid in the manner in which they would have been entitled had the new scale not been promulgated.

MR. WILSON
observed, that since it had been the policy of Parliament to repay to counties the costs of criminal prosecutions there had been a great tendency to abuse, and he hoped the right hon. Gentleman, while endeavouring to promote the ends of justice, would take care not to encourage abuse. The late Government adopted the existing scale after due inquiry, having found that the ends of justice were best promoted where the scale of allowance was the lowest. Under the former scale a great number of unnecessary witnesses, particularly witnesses belonging to the police force, were summoned, and the expense arising from that source formed a heavy burden on the rates.

§ MR. HENLEY
said, he was quite sure that his right hon. Friend would earnestly direct his attention to the remedying of those abuses. These payments to police witnesses were, no doubt, crying abuses; but the late Home Secretary, with the view of putting an end to them, adopted a scale so low as absolutely to defeat the ends of justice. The allowance to witnesses belonging to the class of mechanics absolutely put them out of pocket, and the effect of such a course would soon be to prevent them seeing anything.

§ MR. J. D. FITZGERALD
said, that having been on the Public Prosecutor's Committee, which sat some years ago, he would bog to direct the attention of the House to the evidence given before it as being of a very valuable nature, and such as to throw great light upon several abuses. He recollected that one of the cases brought before the Committee was that of £1 a day being allowed to a witness. It turned 399 out that the witness who received that allowance was the gaoler of the town in which the assizes were holden.