§ MR. LOUGH (Islington, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that one, Henry Harris, solicitor and a commissioner for affidavits, has been ordered within 14 days to pay three cab-drivers sums varying from 10s. to 21s. for fares, and that he has refused to comply with the order, so that none of these poor men have received either their money or the costs which they have necessarily incurred; whether he can assist these men; and whether he can 1278 provide some means of easy recovery of their fares for cabdrivers who have been defrauded more than once by the same individual?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.The answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. With regard to the second and third paragraphs, I regret that in the existing state of the law I cannot assist the men, but I will take the earliest opportunity of endeavouring to amend the law. The Chief Magistrate reports to me that in the opinion of all the Metropolitan Magistrates the present state of the law ought to be remedied.