§ GENERAL SHUTE (for Mr. BENETT-STANFORD)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the case of Allen John Mitchell and James Edgington, labourers, who were sentenced by Mr. Justice Stephen, at the Central Criminal Court, last Thursday, to five years' penal servitude, for setting fire to some gorse or furse on Witley Common, Surrey; and, whether he can see his way to recommend a diminution of such sentence, on account of the small amount of the damage done and the fact that the gorse was not growing in inclosed ground?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, he had communicated with the learned Judge on the matter, and until he heard from him he could not give any answer to the Question.