HC Deb 28 April 1903 vol 121 cc647-8
MR. MANSFIELD (Lincolnshire, Spalding)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the drawing of prizes in connection with the schools and convent at Thomastown, County Kilkenny; and, if so, will he state whether he proposes to take any steps in the matter.

(Answered by Mr. Atkinson.) At my right hon. friend's request I will reply to this Question. It has been the settled policy and practice of the Executive in Ireland for many years not to prosecute, at the suit of the Crown, persons who conduct lotteries at bazaars held for bonâ-fide charitable objects, inasmuch as their acts, though possibly technical violations of the law, are not at all within the mischief aimed at by the several Lotteries Acts. This rule has been applied irrespective of creed and class.