MR. PRICEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true, as stated in the "Times" of Tuesday April 10th, that an inquest was held before the coroner at Runcorn on the body of a child that had met its death on board a canal boat; whether the cause of death was due to the child having been overlain by the mother; and, whether the mother, in giving her evidence, stated "that herself, her husband, and three children slept in the same cabin, which was only three and a-half feet wide by five feet high?"
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, it was true that an inquest was held, and that the jury returned a verdict that the child was found dead in bed, there being no evidence to show that the mother had overlaid it. He believed the matters stated at the end of the Question were substantially true, though he could not speak positively as to the dimensions of the cabin. He wished to take that opportunity to state that, in connection with the subject, he had already drawn up a Bill which, he hoped, would meet the case of children habitually going about in canal boats, and at the first convenient opportunity he would ask leave to bring it in.