§ MR. MACFARLANEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If it is the case that Thomas Perryman, undergoing the commuted sentence of penal servitude for the murder of his mother, has been refused permission to sign a petition, prepared by his solicitor for presentation to Parliament, praying for a remission of his sentence on the ground of his innocence of the crime for which he was convicted; and, if he can state to the House the number of Petitions presented asking for pardon for this man on the ground that there was much doubt of his guilt, and the number of persons who signed those Petitions; and, further, if the evidence of Drs. Allen and Freeman, recently sent in, is not of such an important character as to warrant a reconsideration of the case?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT,in reply, said, he had no doubt leave had been refused to petition the House for a commutation of the sentence in question, because the commutation of a sentence rested with the Crown. As to the number of Petitions, he could not state exactly; but, no doubt, there was a considerable number. When Perryman was tried and sentenced to death in 1879, the matter was very carefully considered by his (Sir William Harcourt's) Predecessor, and the life sentence was commuted. He had considered it since 1156 and had arrived at the same conclusion—namely, that there was no ground whatever for a fresh commutation of the sentence.
§ MR. MACFARLANEgave Notice that, in consequence of the answer he had just received, he would call attention to the case on going into Committee of Supply, and move a Resolution.