HC Deb 14 July 1898 vol 61 cc957-8
MR. PICKERSGILL

I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General, with reference to the recent trial of Dr. Collins at the Central Criminal Court on an indictment for wil- ful murder, when the Attorney General who prosecuted for the Crown, while presenting the death as due to a felonious act done by the prisoner, invited the jury to return a verdict of manslaughter only, and they accordingly did so; and whether, with a view to regularise such verdicts, he will consider the propriety of introducing an amending Bill, so that a person who, without an intention to injure, kills another by a felonious act not likely in itself to cause death or grievous bodily harm, may be regularly convicted of manslaughter and not of murder?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir R. WEBSTER,) Isle of Wight

I do not think there is any necessity for an amending Bill. The law, as he endeavoured to express it, has been laid down more than once by distinguished judges in charging juries.