§ MR. MITCHELL HENRYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, considering the annoyance that is being given to many poor persons by unadvised prosecutions under the Act 29 Charles II., he will bring in a short Act rendering it necessary that for the next year all prosecutions under the said Act shall only be by leave of the Attorney General?
MR. BRUCESir, the Act of Charles II. deals generally with two classes of cases. One of them is that which has lately been the special object of public interest—namely, Sunday trading; the other is the question of labour. The Act is, undoubtedly, in many respects inapplicable at the present time. It is an Act which it is simply impossible to enforce, and it was only retained on the Statute Book because of the good sense with which, on the whole, its provisions had been applied. There is, I believe, a general desire—not, perhaps, quite universal, but very general—that the Sunday should be devoutly observed throughout the country, and I do not think that either Parliament or the country is prepared to dispense altogether with legislation on the subject; but these offences, when they are committed, are offences not so much against individuals as offences against the public sense of decency and order. Therefore, I think that there should be some authority interposed between the common informer and magistrate. Whether the Attorney General is the proper person to interpose in these cases—which are cases of summary jurisdiction before a magistrate—is a matter about which I have great doubt, and it is a resource to which I should only be disposed to resort on being satisfied that there were no other means of dealing with the difficulty. Another course has suggested itself to me, and it is one that I venture to hope may meet with general acceptance by the House. I need hardly say that at this period of the Session no proposal could be brought forward with any chance of success unless it was substantially approved of by hon. Gentlemen on both sides. I have not yet worked out the details of the proposal so completely as to lay it now before the House; but I hope to be able to do so in a few days.