§ MR. HAZELLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the action of the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis in relation to the London Road-Car Company; whether he is aware that the Commissioner has served notices upon the company that several metropolitan stage carriages are unfit for public use, and are therefore not to be used, although in perfect condition, merely because they have a packet of handbills suspended inside them; whether he is aware that those handbills simply indicate an alteration in the route, and are necessary announcements to the public which the company are not permitted to put on the outside of their carriages; and, whether he will cause the prohibition to be revoked.
* THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (SIR M. WHITE RIDELY,) Lancashire, BlackpoolThe answer to the second paragraph is in the affirmative. The Secretary of State's Order forbids any matter to appear inside or outside the carriage by way of advertisement except with the approval of the Commissioner. In the present case the approval of the Commissioner had not been asked for or obtained. The Bills in question did not relate to the route of the carriages in which they were exhibited, 1473 and were, I understand, advertisements within the meaning of the Order. They have now been withdrawn, and the technical objection to the fitness of the carriages has consequently been removed.