§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEI rise, Sir, to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the question, of which I have given him private notice, respecting my friend Mr. Evelyn, the High Sheriff of Surrey. I wish to know, Whether, taking into consideration the high character of Mr. Evelyn, and the universal respect entertained for him in the county of Surrey, and also the misapprehension under which he issued the placard, desiring the officers 1694 not to close that portion of the Court assigned to the public, in opposition to the commands of the Judge presiding in that Court, the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary will advise Her Majesty to be graciously pleased to remit the fine of £500 which has been imposed on Mr. Evelyn.
SIR GEORGE LEWISSir, I have no doubt at all of the high character of Mr. Evelyn, the High Sheriff of Surrey; but I must take the liberty of remarking that if it is his wish to approach Her Majesty with any petition for the remission of the fine imposed on him, the proper mode of making the petition is to address it, in the first instance, to the Home Secretary, and not to ask any friend of his, however respectable, to put a question in this House. Not having received any communication from Mr. Evelyn, and not knowing from his statement that there had been any misapprehension, it is impossible for me to give any opinion whatever as to the advice which I might, in the event of such a petition being presented, tender to Her Majesty on the subject. I will only say that I have seen the handbill which Mr. Evelyn caused to be placarded in the town, and which, I believe, he also caused to be distributed by the Sheriff's Officers in the Court, and it certainly appears to me that that placard was of a highly objectionable nature for a High Sheriff, under the circumstances, to distribute. Until I receive some information which leads me to a different conclusion it seems to me to be clear that the Judges were fully justified in taking serious notice of the proceedings of the High Sheriff.