§ MR. ROWNTREE (Scarborough)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been called to a ease of aggravated insult recently offered by a man to two young women on the premises of the London and Brighton Railway Company, when Mr. Partridge, in sentencing the Defendant, is reported to have said—
This man's conduct has been disgraceful in the extreme, and if I had the power I would send him to prison without the option of a fine;whether the inability of the magistrate to imprison was due to the fact that the charge was made under the by-laws of the Railway Company, or to any defect in the law apart from this; and, if the latter, whether he will consider the practicability of making the law more equal in its application to men and women?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.), in reply, said, that a careful inquiry was being made into the facts of the case; but he had not yet received a Report from the magistrate. As soon as he did receive it he would make it public.