§ MR. J. W. LOGAN () Leicester, HarboroughI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he is aware that the clerk to the justices of the Andover Petty Sessional Division is also clerk to the guardians of the poor within the same district, and advises both bodies in regard to prosecutions for non-compliance with the Vaccination Law; whether such a combination is legal; and, if he will, under the circumstances, cause the remission of the fines imposed on a number of defendants in vaccination cases heard at that Court on Friday last, and particularly that of a widow who is to be imprisoned for six days in default of payment of fine or goods to distrain upon?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThe clerk to the justices of the Andover Division is also, I am informed, the clerk to the guardians within the same district. The combination is, I believe, perfectly legal. The clerk is reported, however, as saying in the newspaper extract, which the hon. Member was good enough to send me, that he had not advised the guardians in regard to any of these cases. Costs only, not fines, were imposed in each case, and these I have no power to remit.