§ *MR. BOWLESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, on the 13th February last, Charles Weatherley, age 22, was sentenced at Newington Sessions to three months' imprisonment for breaking into a house and stealing a tobacco-pouch, pipe, cigarette-case, and snuff-box; whether he is aware that this man served for two years in His Majesty Navy and was sent by the Admiralty to Gloucester Lunatic Asylum, suffering from the effects of brain fever and a sunstroke at the end of that service; whether he is aware that this man has since been in another asylum and is in fact a lunatic; and whether he will cause immediate inquiries to be made into the case with a view to his treatment as such.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLADSTONE, Leeds, W)I have made inquiries, and I find that upon this prisoner's reception in prison after conviction the Medical Officer was notified that he had been in Gloucester Asylum and Maidstone Asylum continuously from August, 1904, to October, 1905, when he was discharged cured. Special attention was in consequence given to the prisoner's mental condition; but since his conviction he has shown no sign whatever of any mental unsoundness. On reception he stated to the Medical Officer that he feigned insanity for the purpose of getting discharged from the Royal Navy, and he persists in this statement. The prisoner's mental condition will continue to receive careful attention, but at present no further action on my part appears to be necessary or possible.