§ MR. HOPWOODI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been directed to the committal of George Ransom, of High Park, Northiam, Sussex, to prison (it is believed to Lewes Gaol) on the 13th instant, for the non-vaccination of his child; whether it be the fact that this man has already undergone three imprisonments for objecting to vaccinate his children; whether the three imprisonments were in respect of the same child; and whether, in accordance with the unanimous interim Report of the Royal Commissioners on Vaccination against repeated prosecution, he will consider the expediency of setting the man at liberty?
§ MR. ASQUITHMy attention has been called to this case, and I am informed that the statements in the second and third paragraphs of the question are correct. I have requested the committing Justices to furnish me with a Report, but until I have received it I cannot come to a decision as to the propriety of the sentence. I must add that I greatly regret these repeated prosecutions and imprisonments for that which is in substance a single infraction of the law, and that I propose in a Bill which I shall shortly introduce to ask Parliament to make them impossible.