MR. CHANGING (Northampton, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a complaint has been made by Henry Stevens and Thomas Plummer, of Coventry, to the effect that on the 14th May last a fine of 20s. and 11s. 6d. costs was inflicted on 1124 each of them by the Coventry Magistrates, under the 31st section of the Vaccination Act, without an order for vaccination of the children concerned having been previously made and "disregarded," according to the terms of the Act, by the said defendants; whether the Coventry Magistrates acted in accordance with the law in fining the defendants without a previous order; and whether, if the sentences were illegal, he will direct that the fines and costs be repaid to the defendants?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThe answer to the first question is in the affirmative. If the allegations of the complainants are well founded, the convictions can be quashed; and I understand from the Magistrates' clerk that an application is about to be made for the purposes Pending this, which is the proper remedy, any interference of mine would be improper.