§ MR. SWETENHAM (Carnarvon)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the statement of Mr. Justice Hawkins, in charging the Grand Jury at Birmingham on Saturday last, that "The Sessions Relief Act, 1889," directs that, when prisoners have committed offences indictable for trial at Quarter Sessions, the witnesses are to be bound over to Quarter Sessions, unless the Justices, for "special reasons," otherwise direct; that the Act did not state what these special reasons were, and did not appear to apprehend the seriousness of a man lying in gaol three or four months at the expense of the county. In that division of Warwickshire there were no fewer than 17 prisoners awaiting their trial whose offences had been committed since the 28th of June, and who must wait in gaol until between the 2nd and 10th of October, when the next Sessions would be held; and whether, in order to prevent as far as possibe the recurrence of the cruelty of keeping prisoners awaiting their trial in the manner they are being kept in the division of Warwickshire referred to, and the expense to the county, he will issue a Circular to the Magistrates' Clerks of the Petty Sessional Divisions, stating that the near approach of the Assizes as compared with the Sessions affords a "special reason" for directing the witnesses to be bound over to appear at the Assizes?
§ MR. MATTHEWSMy attention had not been directed to the observations quoted by my hon. Friend until I saw his question. I should be exceed- 779 ing my proper functions if I issued to Magistrates' Clerks a Circular professing to give an authoritative construction of the Assizes Relief Act, 1889. It is for Justices to decide upon all the circumstances whether "special reasons" exist for sending any case to the Assizes, and I apprehend they would take into consideration, among other circumstances, the comparative proximity of the Assizes and Sessions.