§ MR. J. W. LOGAN (Leicester, Harborough)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if he is aware that the Guardians of the Uppingham Union have, within a period of four 284 and a-half years, caused 16 summonses to be served upon, one parent for noncompliance with the Vaccination Law; and if he will direct the attention of the Guardians of that and other unions in which parents are being similarly prosecuted to the letter of the Local Government Board, issued in 1875, in which guardians were warned that when in a particular case repeated prosecutions have failed in their object, it becomes necessary to carefully consider the question whether the continuance of a fruitless contest with the parent may not have a tendency to produce mischievous results, by exciting sympathy with the person prosecuted, and thus creating a more extended opposition to the law?
§ MR. CHAPLINI have no information as to the number of summonses served in the case referred to in the Question, but a copy of the letter issued in 1875 was sent to the Guardians of the Uppingham Union upon this subject, and at their request, as recently as the 15th of January last.
§ MR. LOGANI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is aware that the police on duty at the sales of goods of persons who refused to comply with the Vaccination Law at Maidenhead acted as bidders and partisans generally; that three men who were committed to prison in default of payment of fines under the same law were conducted through the streets of Maidenhead handcuffed, and were roughly handled by the police; and if he proposes taking any action in the matter?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYI have made inquiry and am informed that some of the police did bid for some of the things at the public auction; also that the three men referred to were handcuffed, this step being necessary, in the judgment of the police, in order to prevent a rescue. The police, however, emphatically deny that the men were roughly handled, and I see no grounds for believing that such was the case. I propose making further inquiry as to the bidding by the police at the auction.