§ MR. WATTI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland if his attention has been called to the case of a boy, Thomas Flanagan, who was convicted at the Central Police Court, Glasgow, on 2nd April to five years in Slatefield industrial school; whether he is aware that this 82 boy is only nine and a half years of age, that the clothes stolen were those of his brother, and taken from his father's house, and that this was his first offence; and whether, in these circumstances, he can see his way to mitigate the sentence.
§ MR. SINCLAIRI have caused inquiry to be made into the circumstances of the case, and having regard to the reports that I have received in regard to the boy's character and antecedents, I think the action taken by the magistrate has been for his advantage, and I am not prepared to interfere.