§ MR. CUNINGHAME GRAHAMI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he could see his way to inquire into the circumstances of the charges brought against Mrs. Beecroft, of Stockport, by the police, and on account of which her child has been sent to a reformatory for five years?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI have received a report as to the circumstances of the case of Mrs. Beecroft, of Stockport, and her child. The Magistrates' Clerk informs me that the child was convicted in February last year of stealing a purse, and her father was bound over for her good behaviour. The following month the mother was convicted of receiving a purse, three other charges against her being withdrawn. In the house a quantity of stolen property was discovered by the police. On the 9th of February this year the child was again convicted on her own confession of stealing a purse, which she alleged she had given to her mother. The case was clearly proved, and the Magistrate sentenced the child to detention in a reformatory.