MR. HARVEY LEWISasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a report in "The Daily Telegraph" of the 29th April of the cases of Catherine FitzGibbon and Catherine Crawley, who were summoned to the Hammersmith Police Office by a person styling himself "the Reverend Bee Wright," for Sunday trading, under the Act of King Charles the Second: Catherine EitzGibbon kept a stall, and Catherine Crawley sold some winkles; neither had any money, and each was fined by Mr. Dayman 5s. and 2s. respectively; 47 in default of payment Mr. Dayman committed the two women to prison for seven days; and, whether it is the intention of the Home Secretary to order their immediate release from prison?
MR. BRUCEreplied that the hardship of which the hon. Member complained rested rather with the Act itself than with the mode in which it was administered by the justices. If it was the pleasure of Parliament that the Act should be repealed the hardship would cease to exist; but he did not think it his duty, as long as the Act existed and was in operation, to interfere with the decisions of magistrates except in very extreme cases. With respect to this particular case, he was happy to observe that by the action of some humane persons the fines had been paid, and the women had been released from custody.