§ MR. CHANNINGI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he proposes to bring in a Bill to provide that persons convicted of offences under the Vaccination Acts, or of obstructing the highway by religious services, or of other offences of similar character, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, should be treated as first-class misdemeanants?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI should have been better able to answer the Question if the hon. Member had specified "the other offences" which he considers to be of a "similar character" to offences under the Vaccination Acts and the Highway Acts. The magistrates have already the power of largely mitigating the punishments inflicted on summary conviction of substituting a fine for any imprisonment, and possibly (although this is a matter of doubt) of ordering the offender to be treated as a first-class misdemeanant; and I wish they would use those powers more freely in some of the cases which the hon. Member has in view. But I have known cases under the Vaccination Acts where a parent is guilty of cruelty to his children and selfish disregard of the public welfare, with no good motive whatever; and cases under the Highway Acts, accompanied by riotous conduct and serious public nuisance, which are not deserving of lenient treatment; and I should not be prepared to bring in a Bill of the sweeping character described by the hon. Gentleman making imprisonment as a first-class misdemeanant in all cases the only penalty for offences of that kind.