§ Colonel CHALONERasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that an evangelist of the Church Association, while addressing meetings in the market place, Bury, was subjected to interruptions of an obscene and filthy character and also assaulted, and that the police, instead of protecting the evangelist by arresting his assailants, arrested him and, subsequently, the magistrates, without giving his employers or friends an opportunity of bringing witnesses on his behalf, committed him to prison for a month for refusing to be bound over for six months; is he also aware that the justices refused a summons for re-hearing his case and producing witnesses on his behalf on the ground that such application, although made under Section 26 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, was refused because it was said to be in the nature of an appeal; and whether, in view of these facts, he will take steps to secure the release of this evangelist?
§ Mr. McKENNAI have this morning received an application on behalf of the prisoner. I will inquire into the circumstances of the case.