§ MR. E. H. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the trial of a woman for bigamy at Winchester Assizes on the 6th instant, on the prosecution of a police sergeant at Fareham, with the sanction (as he said) of the Chief Constable of Hants, when the Judge, the prisoner having been found guilty by his direction, ordered her to be at once discharged and disallowed the costs of the police evidence and the costs of the solicitor for the prosecution, on the ground that it was a prosecution which 389 ought not to have been instituted; and whether he would avail himself of the next issue of a Home Office circular to caution the police that they ought to make proper inquiry, and exercise care and discretion, before instituting prosecutions for bigamy?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TUB HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolI have seen a report of this trial in the newspapers, but the circumstances do not appear to me to form a sufficient ground for making a special communication, such as the hon. Member suggests, to police forces generally. I have no reason to suppose that they do not ordinarily exercise the necessary care and discretion in instituting proceedings for bigamy.