§ MR. HUNTsaid, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Whether it would not be desirable to put an end to the system of examining the items of the costs of prosecutions in indictable oases by Imperial officers previous to payment by the Treasury, and to substitute a payment to the local treasurers in respect of such cost of a commutation sum for each indictable offence, either on a general average, or an average of classes of offences, on the same principle that has been adopted in the case of prosecutions under the Criminal Justice Act and Juvenile Offenders Act?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, he had referred the subject to the examiners of criminal law accounts, and he was sorry to have to state that, on the best consideration he could give to it, he did not think he could comply with the suggestion of the right hon. Gentleman. The right hon. Gentleman thought they might take either a general average in those cases, or an average founded on particular classes of crimes. He did not, however, see how the proposed change could be made; because in different counties there was not only a different number of crimes, but the crimes were different in quality, atrocity, and expensiveness. For instance, in Essex the prosecutions cost on an average £8 each; in Berkshire they cost £9; in Cheshire they cost £14; and in Lancashire they cost £23 each. It would, therefore, be impossible to make up a satisfactory average out of these figures, because no compensation could be given for the larger outlay in Lancashire as compared with Essex or Berk- 812 shire. Then, again, if an attempt were made to adopt an average based upon particular crimes, it would be found that those crimes differed materially in their accompanying circumstances, and that while one was of a perfectly simple character, another involved a variety of more or less conflicting considerations, and could only be proved or disproved by a mass of circumstantial evidence. The expense of examining those accounts was £3,500 a year, and the work was, he believed, very satisfactorily performed. He should certainly be glad to save the country that outlay, but he did not see his way to the attainment of that object.