§ MR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS (Hull, E.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a Report, which appeared on Monday in The Standard newspaper, that—
An elderly woman named Abigail Bird, a widow with five children dependent upon her for support, was charged at the Dartford Petty Sessions on Saturday with stealing three bundles of hurdle wood at Southfleet that morning. The 1435 evidence went to show that a man, who escaped, was seen to steal the wood from Mr. Armstrong's plantation at Southfleet, and, when he found that he was being watched, he threw the wood into the prisoner's barrow and decamped. Prisoner acknowledged that she knew the man, and she was taken into custody on the charge of being implicated in the robbery. Prisoner protested that she knew nothing of the stolen wood. The Chairman said the prisoner would be imprisoned for one month with hard labour, and the Superintendent of the Police was instructed to take her children to the workhouse;and, will he cause inquiries to be made into the case?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. CHILDERS) (Edinburgh, S.)I have received this morning two letters on the subject, and I have ordered an immediate inquiry to be made into the circumstances.