§ Mr. GIBSON BOWLESasked the Home Secretary if he will state or agree to a Return stating the number of persons under the age of twenty-one who have been imprisoned by Metropolitan magistrates during each of the last three calendar years in default of paying fines?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI have not this information, and I fear I cannot obtain it. The ages of prisoners above sixteen are not given in the commitments or recorded at the courts, and the statements they make at the prison are frequently inaccurate, and could not be made available without enormous labour out of all proportion to the value of the Return.