§ SIR CHARLES CAMERON (Glasgow, Bridgeton)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate, whether he is aware that Dr. Lamont did not leave South Uist until the evening of the 15th of last September, and why, therefore, the warrant for his apprehension, dated 10th September, was not executed before he left the island; whether the police, who arrested Dr. Lamont in his mother's house in Glasgow at 12 o'clock p.m. on 17th September, had 36 in their possession the warrant for his apprehension, and whether they exhibited that warrant to him when apprehending him; whether he is aware that, before leaving Lochboisdale on 15th September, Dr. Lamont gave Police Sergeant Philip his address in Glasgow at his mother's house; and, if this is denied, if he would state how the police officer who arrested Dr. Lamont in Glasgow knew exactly where to find him; whether Dr. Mackenzie, the honorary Sheriff-substitute, who granted warrants for Dr. Lamont's apprehension on 10th September, 19th September, and again on 22nd December, 1898, was employed by the Procurator-Fiscal, on whose petition he granted the said warrants, to draw up medical reports on the case, and that two medical reports by Dr. Mackenzie, dated respectively 23rd September and 24th October, figure in the list of Crown productions in the case; whether Dr. Mackenzie has been paid, or has been promised, any fee for these reports; and, if so, how much; and, whether, when the police called on Dr. Lamont's mother on 8th December, and stated that they had instructions to re-arrest him, any warrant had been issued for his re-arrest; and, if so, what was the reason for the issue of the warrant for his re-arrest granted by Dr. Mackenzie on 22nd December.
§ * MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAYAs regards Paragraph 1, I have already told the honourable Member that the instructions given by the Procurator-Fiscal were only to apprehend Dr. Lamont if he left the island; and as the Police did not know that he was leaving on the 15th there was no need to execute the warrant. As regards Paragraph 2, the Glasgow Police had no warrant in their possession, but the fact of the existence of a warrant had been communicated to them by telegraph from the Chief Constable at Inverness. As regards Paragraph 3 I have made inquiry, and find that Sergeant Philip had, in conversation with Dr. Lamont, been given by him Mrs. Lamont's address in Glasgow, and this address Philip communicated by telegram, on the 17th of September, to the Chief Constable at Inverness. The information in the fourth paragraph is correct. Fees will of course be paid in the ordinary way, and on the ordinary scale allowed by Exchequer. As regards the fifth paragraph, every 37 petition with fresh charges contains a warrant to commit in ordinary form. Fresh charges were made on 21st September, 25th October and 22nd December, but no fresh arrest was made because Crown Counsel, to whom the case had by this time been reported, ordered that Dr. Lamont should not be re-arrested, his agent undertaking to produce him for declaration.
§ SIR CHARLES CAMERONWhat is the amount of the fees paid to Dr. Mackenzie?
§ * MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAYThe fees vary from one guinea to three guineas, according to what he has done.
§ SIR CHARLES CAMERONSeeing that neither Dr. Lamont nor his agent have seen the warrant, will the right honourable Gentleman have any objection to its being shown to them?
§ * MR. A. GRAHAM MURRAYI have seen it; it is absolutely in the ordinary form.
§ SIR CHARLES CAMERONCan Dr. Lamont's agent see it?
§ [No reply.]