§ BARON DIMSDALE (Herts, Hitchin)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has received a memorial signed by more than a thousand residents in Hitchin and its neighbourhood, with affidavits annexed thereto, respecting the conviction of George Waller and Charles Street for the unlawful possession of partridge and pheasant eggs; and whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter, either as to reconsideration of the decision of the Hitchin justices or the mitigation of the unusually severe sentence passed on the two men, neither of them having been convicted on any previous occasion?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have received a memorial respecting the conviction of Waller and Street. After full consideration of the various statements made in it, I regret that I am unable to modify the opinion which I expressed in answer to the question of the hon. Member for Leicester on Monday last upon the evidence in this case, or to recommend a mitigation of the sentence.