§ SIR JULIAN GOLDSMID (St. Pancras, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that Joseph Green-way, who was committed for trial at Bow Street Police Station in June, 1892, and who subsequently absconded, surrendered himself at Bow Street, on the 5th October last, that Thomas Siers, of 15, London Street, stood bail for him in the sum of £250, and that such bail was estreated when Greenway absconded; and whether, in view of the fact that the said Thomas Siers informed the solicitor to the Treasury of Greenway's whereabouts as soon as he discovered, it, and thus did his best to assist justice, the whole or a portion of the amount of the bail can now be returned to Siers?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe facts are correctly stated in the first paragraph. As to the second paragraph, it is true that Siers gave information to the police as to Greenway's address in America; hut this information led to nothing, as Greenway came over from America and surrendered himself. Siers made misleading representations to the effect that he had paid the whole of his bail of £250, whereas it turned out that £125 of the £250 alleged to have been paid by Siers had been found by Mrs. Greenway herself. Under these circumstances, the Treasury Solicitor advised that his want of good faith disentitled Siers to relief, and in this view I concur.