§ MR. BOTTOMLEY (Hackney, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the fact that during the year 1905 the prerogative of mercy was exercised in twenty-seven cases on grounds affecting conviction, such as doubt of the prisoners' guilt, and that during the year 1904 there were twenty-four similar cases, he can hold out the hope of the Criminal Appeal Bill being passed into law during the present session.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI understand that the Criminal Appeal Bill will be brought in shortly in another place. The figures given in the Question are correct, but they are liable to give a wrong impression, inasmuch as a majority of the cases in which the prerogative of mercy was exercised were summary convictions which would not come within the scope of the Criminal Appeal Bill.