§ MR. ASCROFT (Oldham)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the attempt made on Saturday last to wreck the Folkestone express by placing obstructions upon the line, and to the other similar attempts recently made on other railway lines in the United Kingdom; and whether, considering that the crimes of garotting and robbery with violence were checked by the power given to the courts by the Act of 1863 of ordering prisoners convicted of such offences to be flogged, he will, with a view to securing the safety of passengers and railway employees, consider the advisability of at once introducing a Bill giving similar powers to the court where a prisoner has been con- 979 victed of an, attempt to wreck a railway-train?
§ MR. COLLINGSThe Secretary of State is fully alive to the dastardly nature of these outrages, and to the importance of doing all that can be done to prevent their recurrence; but in view of the fact that penal servitude for life may be (and was in a recent case) the sentence imposed for such crimes he does not think that the present punishment can be considered inadequate, nor does he think it would be desirable to adopt the honourable Member's suggestion?