§ SIR EDMUND LECHMERE (Worcestershire, Bewdley)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he had received any presentments made to Her Majesty's Judges by grand juries of counties and cities during the recent assizes, in reference to the expediency of placing the public executioner under the control of the Home Office; whether he had received copies of resolutions adopted by County Magistrates at the last Epiphany Quarter Sessions on the same subject; whether he would enumerate the counties and cities from which such presentments and resolutions have been received; and, whether he would, at the same time, communicate to the House the opinions, if any, conveyed to him by Her Majesty's Judges thereon?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThe answer to the first two paragraphs is in the affirmative. I have received such presentments from the counties of Surrey, Dorset, Westmoreland, Leicester, Worcester, Lincoln, Gloucester, Durham, Devon, Nottingham, York, Monmouth, Hereford, Derby, Salop, and Glamorgan. I have received resolutions of magistrates from the counties of Worcester and Monmouth. These presentments were forwarded to me without any expression of opinion by the learned Judges, except in the case of the Lord Chief Justice, who thought the suggested change a very right and rational one, and of Mr. Justice Denman, who thought that the carrying out of executions had better not be in the hands of the Government.