§ MR. FORSYTHasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true that last week, in the Police Court of Bolton, a man named William Venables was convicted of savagely, and without any provocation, kicking, with iron-shod clogs, a woman named Ellen Hindley and her baby, and was sentenced to only three months' imprisonment; and, if he can explain why the full punishment of six months' imprisonment was not inflicted?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, he had made inquiries into the case referred to by the hon. Member, and found that the Question treated a great many things as facts which were not so. The communication which he had re- 72 ceived from the magistrates stated that, in their opinion, there had not been any savagery; that the provocation offered was very great; that the kicks upon Ellen Hindley were not of a serious nature, as they only caused mere discoloration of the skin; and that there was no evidence whatever that the child was kicked or injured besides an abrasion, which was not supposed to arise from a kick. Therefore, the magistrates did not inflict the full punishment of six months' imprisonment. He might remind his hon. Friend that, though he had the power of recommending a remission of punishment when it was considered too great, he had not the power, where magistrates had in their discretion ordered a particular punishment, of inflicting a severer sentence.