§ MR. ALGERNON EGERTONsaid, lie would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is prepared to alter the present scale of allowances to witnesses at Sessions and Assizes?
SIR GEORGE LEWISsaid, he had frequently had interviews with deputations from South Lancashire and from the West Riding of Yorkshire, comprising gentlemen of great weight and experience, in order to represent to him the inadequacy of the general allowances to witnesses in prosecutions at the assizes and sessions. Those expenses were at present defrayed by a grant of that House, and any increase in them would consequently become a burden on the Public Exchequer. The subject was one of great difficulty, whether it were considered as leading to a general increase under that head in all counties, or as a variable scale involving different rates for different counties. He could only say that he had not yet come to any satisfactory conclusion upon the subject; but he could assure the House that he had it under his careful consideration.