MR. BEITH&c.) (Inverness,I beg to ask the Lord Advocate if he is aware that William Wright, Loch Gorm Inn, Inverness, and Alexander Macdonald, clerk, residing at 28, Queen Street, Inverness, were brought up at the Police Court there on 30th October, 1893, charged with having on Sunday evening, 29th October, assaulted a grocer's assistant at Inverness by striking him with their clenched fists on the face and abdomen, beating him on the head with a brush, kicking him severely, to the effusion of blood and serious injury to his person; if he is aware that the presiding Magistrate took so serious a view of the case that ho required bail of £10 from each, and remitted the case to the Sheriff of the county, but that no further proceedings have been taken in the Sheriff Court; and if it is intended still to try the case in the public interest; and, if not, why the prosecution has been abandoned?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR,&c.) Clackmannan,While the Procurator Fiscal was preparing the case to report it to the Crown Office the person assaulted, by letter, withdrew the charge, and as he subsequently adhered to this withdrawal, Crown Counsel considered that there should be no further proceedings. The assault seems to have arisen from a quarrel.