§ MR. STANHOPE (Leicestershire, Market Harborough)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the case of Jabez Wilson Harrison, of Burgh le Marsh, Lincolnshire, who has already suffered two months imprisonment imposed upon him by the magistrates of Spilsby and Boston, and who is now undergoing a third term of imprisonment of a month inflicted upon him by the latter bench of magistrates, in consequence of his conscientious objection to compulsory -vaccination, and the refusal of the magistrates to grant him a certificate of exemption; whether he will order the release of this man, and call the attention of the magisterial benches of Spilsby and Boston to the spirit and intention of the Vaccination Acts with regard to conscientious objectors.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) I can only refer the hon. Member to the Answer which I gave last Tuesday† to the hon. Member for Ross and Cromarty on this case. This was as follows: "I have made inquiries into this case, and I learn that the remarks on the subject of conscientious objection to vaccination made by the Lord Chief Justice at the Birmingham Summer Assizes were brought to the notice of the Spilsby magistrates before they convicted Harrison. The question whether the circumstances justify the issue of a certificate of exemption is in each case one for the discretion of the magistrates, with which I have no power to interfere. "I regret that I do not feel justified in advising any remission of the sentence.