§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Homo Department if, having regard to the fact, that although 10,393 persons have been saved from prison under the provisions of the probation of the First Offenders Act between 1888 and 1893, in the six districts of the Metropolis, the West Riding, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Durham, and that only 938, or less than 10 per cent., of these have been called upon to appear and receive judgment, or are known to have been subsequently convicted of a fresh offence, two Metropolitan Police Courts and several places have failed altogether to put the Act into operation, or to avail themselves of the powers conferred by the Summary Jurisdiction Act in a similar direction, IK; will consider the advisability of re-issuing the Circular of his predecessor, reminding Criminal Courts of the Statute, in the hope that they may utilise it, still further, and thereby save the country from the maintenance of many persons in prison, and at the same time reclaim considerable numbers to honest society?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fife, E.I am anxious, with a view to mitigate the treatment of those who commit trifling offences, that Justices should fully avail themselves of both the Probation of First Offenders Act and the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, s. 16; and I am considering whether any further action should be taken by the Home Office for that purpose.