§ MR. WHALLEYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a statement in the newspapers that the policemen Hayes and Barry, prosecuted and convicted of perjury in the case of the lads Dye and Pearce, had been reinstated in the police force on full pay under the circumstance that. Mr. Ivory, the prosecutor, had been unable to sustain the cost of carrying on the proceedings through the Court of Queen's Bench; whether he considers that the case demands his attention; and, whether he is informed of the proceedings taken by the Police Commissioners, and to communicate the same to the House?
§ MR. GATHORNE HARDYsaid, in reply, that the Question of the hon. Member did not state the facts quite correctly. 1450 The prosecution was instituted against the boys Dye and Pearce, who were convicted chiefly on the evidence of the two policemen. Afterwards an indictment for perjury and conspiracy was preferred against the policemen, and Hayes was convicted and Barry acquitted of the charge of perjury under precisely similar circumstances. The trial for conspiracy was pending up to May last, when no one appearing to prosecute they were both acquitted. Hayes had not been called up for judgment, nor was there any intention of calling him up. Under these circumstances, the Chief Commissioner (Sir Richard Mayne) had to consider the proper course to pursue, and the matter was submitted to him (Mr. G. Hardy), with a recommendation from the magistrate acquainted with the facts, that the men should, under the circumstances, be reinstated in their situations. In accordance with that recommendation the men had been reinstated, and they were now receiving full pay.