§ COLONEL SMYTHsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is prepared to alter the scale of allowances to prosecutors and witnesses at Assizes and Quarter Sessions in certain cases, as suggested by deputations from Yorkshire and Lancashire during the present Assizes?
SIR GEORGE LEWISsaid, he had carefully examined into the subject of the question of the hon. and gallant Member, and it appeared that, although the present scale of allowances was strongly objected to in some of the northern counties, and by persons who were in a position to give great weight and authority to their complaints, nevertheless, in the great majority of the counties, and particularly in the metropolitan districts, no complaints arose. The great diminution which had recently taken place in the number of prosecutions had been by some persons explained on the theory that the allowances to witnesses were insufficient; but that diminution was general throughout England, and pervaded counties in which practically there had been no reduction in the scale of allowances. The diminution also extended to Scotland and Ireland, in which no change had taken place in the scale of allowances. Under those circumstance he did not feel himself justified in recommending to the Treasury a general increase in the allowances; but he would be prepared to bring in a Bill to enable any county which thought those allowances insufficient to make an addition to them from the county rates.