§ CAPTAIN CHALONER (Wilts,) WestburyI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to certain vaccination cases tried at Bradford-on-Avon Petty Sessions on 27th May, whether he has now received the statements, duly attested, of the defendant, George Henry Banks, and his accredited friend, William Grove Parriss, and other witnesses, to the effect that the defendant was not present in Court when the decision was given, and that Mr. Parriss was refused a hearing for all his cases on the sole ground that he was not a solicitor; and, whether, in view of the refusal of a statutory right having been thus shown to have taken place, he is prepared to advise that the orders made on the absent defendant should be cancelled?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYYes, Sir, I have received these statements, and can only conclude that there has been some misunderstanding of the grounds on which Mr. Parriss was refused a hearing. The order was not made, as stated in the Question, in the defendant's absence; and in any case jurisdiction to cancel it lies not with me, but with the High Court.