§ CAPTAIN PIMasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If it is true, as reported at the last Quarter Sessions for the county of Middlesex on the 26th instant, that the Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police have issued instructions forbidding the police to give to the justices at Petty Sessions any information as to the character of persons applying for transfers of licences, and the conduct of the houses for which such application is made?
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON,in reply, said, that to avoid information being given by the police on their own authority, without being sufficiently authenticated, instructions had been issued by the Commissioners of Police directing that in all cases of the transfer of licences the police should give to the Justices at Petty Sessions any information in their power as to the character and past history of persons applying for transfers, and the conduct of the houses for which such application was made, and that that information should be ready and available for the magistrates, use on the day when the cases come on, the policeman being present to verify the statement, and therefore to make it evidence on oath, instead of, as at present, evidence not properly authenticated.