§ MR. SWETENHAM (Carnarvon, &c.)asked Mr. Attorney General, Whether, having regard to the sentence of death passed on Robert Travis at the Chester Assizes, in May, 1886, for the murder of Mrs. M'Intyre, of the subsequent commutation of that sentence to penal servitude for life, and that his case was under the consideration of two Home Secretaries in succession, and that afterwards, on its reviewal by Lords Bramwell and Esher, Travis was released in the present month, he will recommend the Government to bring in a Bill, or to add a clause to the Criminal Evidence Bill now before the House, giving to a prisoner convicted of a capital offence an absolute or conditional right of appeal?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir RICHARD WEBSTER) (Isle of Wight)The question of appeal on questions of fact in criminal cases is one of such vast importance that I am afraid it is not possible to introduce a Bill dealing with the matter in the present Session; and it would be beyond the scope of the Criminal Evidence Bill to introduce any such clause into that measure.