§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to a statement in The Daily News of Tuesday last, to the following effect:—Two labourers, James and Thomas Wilson, were engaged in cutting wood, when they were taken into custody by a gamekeeper and a policeman, and one of them charged before the magistrates at Ashford (Kent) Petty Sessions with "going round as if to see if there was anybody about, and then taking up a rabbit." According to the evidence of 873 the witnesses, Thomas Wilson had no hand in the business, and was at work when his brother James found the rabbit, which he does not hesitate to declare was placed there by the gamekeeper or the policeman, or by both. The Bench sentenced the two men to twenty-one days' imprisonment, with hard labour; and, whether he will cause inquiries to be made into the circumstances of the case, and will state whether policemen, who are paid by public money, can be legally employed to act as gamekeepers to private persons?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, that as he had not had time to ascertain the facts of the case, he would request the hon. Gentleman to postpone the Question.