§ MR. P. A. TAYLORasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a statement in the papers respecting the case of George Whitefoot, who was fined by the magistrates at Shiffnal in Shropshire 30s. and costs for being drunk; and who, being observed to laugh as he left the Court, was called back and sentenced to be sent to prison for one month, without the option of paying a fine; whether he does not think such sentence excessive, if not illegal; and, whether he has taken any steps in the matter?
MR. BRUCEMy attention has been called to the case, and I have received from the clerk of the magistrates a statement in regard to it in which he entirely denies the accuracy of the newspaper reports, upon which I presume my hon. Friend's Question has been based. I am informed that the real account of the matter is this. This man had frequently been brought up and fined for being drunk and disorderly. On the occasion referred to, he behaved with levity; but so far as I gather from the statement of the clerk, there were not two proceedings, and only one sentence was 1299 given, and that was the sentence of one month's imprisonment without the option of a fine. That is a sentence which the magistrates are entitled to inflict under the law; and it was inflicted in this instance in consequence of the repeated misconduct under similar circumstances of the defendant, and the fact that it was within the knowledge of the magistrates that the previous fines were paid by his widowed mother, which made him indifferent to the imposition of pecuniary penalties, as his conduct at the trial also appeared to them to show.