MR. JAMESasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it is the case that Mr. Abel, of Faring-don, has been fined twenty-six times, and in the total sum of £29 10s., in the past two years, for refusing to have 1140 his child vaccinated; if he can state why the board of guardians have employed Mr. Haines, a local solicitor, as prosecutor on no less than eight of these occasions, instead of the vaccination officer; and, whether the conduct of Mr. Goodlake in this case occupying a dual capacity both of judge and prosecutor, as chairman both of the board of guardians and also of the local magistrates, does not call for some immediate alteration of the Law?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH,in reply, said, he believed the figures quoted by the hon. Member were correct. He was informed that it was the practice of the Board of Guardians to employ a solicitor in cases which they brought before the magistrates, who allowed the costs of such solicitor. The legality of the proceeding was brought before him last year on more than one occasion. He had made inquiry, and had no reason to doubt the perfect legality of the transaction. He was informed that Mr. Goodlake, the chairman of the Board of Guardians in question, was not the chairman of the bench of magistrates at Faringdon, and that he did not sign the orders for the prosecutions, which had been issued at the unanimous desire of the Guardians last year—a severe outbreak of small pox having brought the necessity for such a course home to their minds.