§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYasked Her Majesty's Government, Whether their attention has been called to the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of "Regina v. Broadley," reported in The Times of May 3, and what steps they intend to take?
THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in reply, said, that if his noble Friend had intimated either to him or to the noble Lord who represented the Home Office in that House (the Earl of Fife) his intention to ask this Question, he would have been better able to reply to it. All he could say was that if consent were permitted to be a defence in a case of an outrageous assault on a child under seven years of age, such a state of the law was defective, and ought not to be allowed to continue. He was altogether ignorant of the circumstances of the case referred to; but he would take care to inquire into them.