§ 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 Poole bench of magistrates upon Thomas Taylor, a cobbler, upon failure of distraint for a fine in 724 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.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. GLAD-STONE,) Leeds, W.I have made inquiry in this case, and find it was one of persistent refusal to comply with the law; every effort seems to have been made to induce the defendent to comply, but in the end there was no alternative but to commit him to prison. The prisoner has now undertaken to do what is necessary, and at the instance of the town council who prosecuted in this case, I have recommended the remission of the remainder of the sentence.