§ Sir JOHN JARDINEasked the Lord Advocate, with reference to the conviction of John Douglas, at Jedburgh, by the sheriff-substitute, on the 13th February, for cruelly illtreating a lame horse by walking it at Kelso towards the railway station, whether, as a sentence of twenty-one days' imprisonment was passed without the option of a fine, he will make inquiry into the circumstances, the youth of the offender, the absence of previous conviction, and the fact that the cruelty consisted in merely leading the animal, with a view to a possible reduction of the term of imprisonment?
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