§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the observations made by Mr. Sheil at Wandsworth Police Court on Friday last, condemning the system under which "at that Court a case first came before A, was remanded and taken 585 before B, and was finally heard and adjudicated upon by C; "to how many cases do the observations of the learned Magistrate apply; and, what was the name of the defendant, and the result, in each case?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have no information at present on this subject; but I have referred the question to the learned Magistrate. I will cause the hon. Member to be informed of the result. It is, no doubt, desirable that, if possible, the same Magistrate should adjudicate on a case in all its stages; but under existing arrangements, and under any possible arrangement of the Rota, it will sometimes happen that the same Magistrate does not preside at every stage of a protracted case.
§ In reply to a farther question by Mr. PICKERSGILL,
§ MR. MATTHEWSsaid: No Magistrate ever adjudicates until he has heard the whole of the evidence.