§ Mr. GEORGE GREENWOODasked whether, under the Vagrancy Act, 1824, 5 Geo. 4, c 83, s. 10, justices in quarter sessions have the power of sentencing adult offenders to be flogged for comparatively trivial offences, and that both the instrument by which such flogging is to be administered and the number of strokes that are to be given are left entirely in the discretion of such justices; and whether he will consider the desirability of introducing legislation to amend the law in such cases?
§ Mr. McKENNAIt is true that this enactment, like very many others, vests magistrates with powers so wide that if they were used inconsiderately and without due discrimination great hardships might be caused. The fact that the maximum penalty to which particular 2526 offenders may become liable under Statute is often inappropriate for any but a small proportion of such offenders, is not of itself, I think, a reason for an Amendment of the Statute, and I am satisfied that the power given to magistrates at quarter sessions by the Vagrancy Act is not in practice abused by them. Of 1,620 persons sentenced as incorrigible rogues by quarter sessions during the last three years, only seven have been ordered to be whipped.
§ Mr. G. GREENWOODIs it not the case that an adult found wandering abroad without visible means of subsistence, after two previous convictions, may be sentenced to be flogged?
§ Mr. McKENNAYes, he might be, but as a fact he is not.