§ MR. WHALLEYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his statement that evidence on behalf of a convict submitted for the opinion of the Judges, if it be such as might have been produced at the trial, is to be understood as a rule adopted by the right honourable Gentleman in all cases of appeal to him for inquiry or mitigation of penalties, or whether it is a rule adopted specially as to the Tichborne claimant; and, whether he considers such rule applicable to the evidence of Charles Orton, a witness retained on the 1858 part of the prosecution, but not called at the trial?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSIf the hon. Gentleman will excuse me—I would just remark that I have been some time engaged in endeavouring to find out which is the nominative case and which is the verb in the Question. But passing by that—there is no rule of any sort or kind such as that the Question suggests. All the evidence in each case is brought before the Secretary of State, who forms his judgment upon it according to its merit. There being no such rule, it cannot apply to the second part of the Question of the hon. Gentleman.