§ MR. BOTTOMLEY (Hackney, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a sentence of two months imprisonment recently passed by the Bournemouth bench of magistrates upon Thomas Taylor, a cobbler, upon failure of distraint for a fine in respect of an infringement of a local by-law by carrying on his trade in a wooden shed in his own garden; and whether he will consider the justice of advising a mitigation of such sentence.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI had not heard of this case until the hon. Member put down his Question. I communicated at once with the Bournemouth magistrates, but I find the case was not heard by them. I am now making inquiries of the magistrates of the adjoining county division.