§ MR. SHERRIFFsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, What course has been pursued in reference to a case which occurred near Redditch, Worcestershire? The facts had been reported in the newspapers, and were to the effect that Mr. Gray, a minister of the Church of England and a magistrate in the county of Worcester, had sent a child named Emily Jane Ballard, to the lock-up, where she was detained from Monday to Friday, on the charge of having purloined a penny from the pocket of another child. The case was investigated by the magistrates at Petty Sessions, and dismissed.
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, in reply, that he had called on the magistrates for a Report upon the case, and they sent him a full statement of all the circumstances. On reading the statement, he thought that the case required the attention of the Lord Chancellor, with whom alone rested the power of removing a magistrate from the Commission of the Peace, and, without expressing any opinion of his own, he sent to the noble and learned Lord all the papers connected with the subject. A few days ago he received the following letter from the Lord Chancellor:—
I have the honour to inform you that upon receipt of your letter of the 5th instant, inclosing a statement by the Justices of Redditch Petty Sessions, as to the case of Emily Jane Ballard, a little girl charged with stealing a penny, and the con-duet of the Rev. George Robert Gray, vicar of Inkberrow, in reference thereto, I wrote to that gentleman pointing out the great impropriety of his conduct in ordering the girl to be taken to Redditch, without any information on oath or legal warrant, and to be there confined for four days without bail. I also requested to know what explanation he had to offer. Mr. Gray has since forwarded to me a long letter of explanation, in which, while admitting the facts as reported by the other Justices, he urges that he was actuated by the most conscientious motives, and trusts that his good intentions and long services may be taken as a set-off against the single error in judgment. Upon consideration of the whole case, and taking into account Mr. Gray's long services on the Bench, and believing that he was actuated by no improper motives, I have felt myself justified, notwithstanding the great indiscretion of which he has been guilty, in abstaining from the extreme measure of removing him from the Commission of the Peace. I have accordingly written to him intimating that in the circumstances of the case I should refrain from taking further action, though highly condemning his conduct."'