§ MR. NEWDEGATEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, What information he has received or possesses with respect to the present position of Mr. George Mackey, now a prisoner in Winchester Gaol, the term of whose imprisonment, as originally assigned by Mr. Melville Portal, the Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, has expired; when, and upon what conditions, if any, Mr. George Mackey will be liberated; and, whether the Solicitor for the Treasury, who recently appeared in the 961 Bow Street Police Court to prosecute Mr. Robert Steele upon a charge, analogous to that upon which Mr. George Mackey is imprisoned, has stated a case for the opinion of the Court of Common Pleas, as directed by Sir Thomas Henry, the magistrate; and when, if this has been done, the hearing of this case by the Court of Common Pleas is expected to come on?
MR. BRUCE, in reply, said, that Mr. George Mackey was sentenced at the Winchester Quarter Sessions in January last to three months' imprisonment for publishing an obscene pamphlet, and he was also ordered to enter into his own recognizances for £100, and to find sureties for his good behaviour for 12 months. He had neither entered into those recognizances nor found the sureties, and he now remained in prison until he had done so. The Solicitor to the Treasury, who recently appeared at the Bow Street Police Court to prosecute Mr. Robert Steele, upon a charge analogous to that preferred against Mr. Mackey, has sent to Mr. Steele's solicitor a copy of a case directed by Sir Thomas Henry, the magistrate, to be stated for the opinion of the Court of Common Pleas. That case had not yet been returned by Mr. Steele's solicitor; but when it was returned the matter would be proceeded with.