§ MR. BOTTOMLEY (Hackney S)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the judicial statistics for the year 1905 will be issued; and whether, in view of the fact that the only statistics at present available are these for 1904, he will state the number of cases in which sentences were modified at the instance of the Home Office during the year 1905 on grounds affecting the original conviction.
§ * MR. GLADSTONEThe judicial statistics for 1905 cannot possibly be issued till towards the end of the present year. The number of cases in which the Prerogative of Mercy was exercised on grounds affecting the conviction—;such as doubt of the prisoner's guilt—;was 27.