§ MR. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM (Lanark, N.W.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he proposes to take any action in reference to the specific complaints against certain constables with respect to their conduct on Saturday last?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)With reference to the cases mentioned in this House on Monday, the 16th instant, I am having inquiry made, which is not yet completed. But, as I stated in the same debate, the only satisfactory mode of settling these complaints is for the persons aggrieved to bring a charge before a magistrate.
§ MR. HUNTER (Aberdeen, N.)asked the right hon. Gentleman, whether he recognized any responsibility for the police as being part of his servants?
§ MR. MATTHEWSMost certainly; but I do not recognize it as part of my duty to inquire into their conduct. Inquiries of that sort are not satisfactory unless a public complaint is made. Such inquiries must necessarily be imperfect, if conducted without the safeguard of cross-examination in open Court.
§ MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)asked, what should be done if magistrates refused to entertain, or rather dismissed, the summonses against the police, as they always did?
§ MR. MATTHEWSWhen the hon. Member says "as they always do," does he mean that the magistrates do not perform their duty? That involves a charge against the magistrates, which I must entirely repudiate.
§ MR. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAMwished to know how a complaint was ever to be made by a poor man in this country, where justice cost so much?
§ [No reply.]