§ DR. CAMERON (Glasgow, College)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether his attention has been called to the case of T. M. Bonar, of Staplehill, Bristol, who in October, 1888, insured himself against accidents with five different Insurance Companies, and in May, 1889, made claims against each of them for a broken leg alleged to have resulted from an accident sustained in Glasgow; and whether it is the case that two eminent Glasgow surgeons who examined the case deponed that Bonar's leg had never been broken, and that Dr. Campbell, the medical attendant whose name was appended to each of the five certificates sent in in support of the different claims, has deponed that his purported signature is in every case a forgery; and, if so, if he would state the grounds on which the Crown Office directed the public prosecutor at Glasgow not to bring forward the case for trial?
§ * THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. P. B. ROBERTSON, Bute)My attention has been called to this case. It is the fact that an eminent surgeon who saw Bonar's leg was of opinion that it had not been broken, but he thought the injury sufficiently serious to justify the use of splints, and he granted a certificate upon which one of the Insurance Companies made a grant of £6 a week for two weeks. As this was the only sum of money actually obtained from any of the companies, and as it was paid upon the certificate which I have mentioned, and not upon the strength of any of those to which Dr. Campbell's name was improperly appended, Crown counsel were of opinion that a conviction would not be obtained, and that the circumstances, although highly irregular, were not such as to justify a prosecution.