§ Mr. Gladstone, seeing the noble Lord, the Secretary for the Home Department, in his place, wished to ask him a question relative to some very injurious statements which had been put forth relative to the Penitentiary at Millbank, and which had been made at a meeting of the Middlesex justices. He wished to know whether the attention of the noble Lord had been called to a statement of circumstances which, if true, were as discreditable to the Government as pernicious to the establishment? Had the noble Lord already instituted, or, if not, would he institute, an inquiry into the circumstances; and would he consent to lay on the table of the House the result of the inquiry, before the House was called upon to vote the estimates?
§ Lord John Russellhad certainly seen the statements alluded to, but he could not believe, that they could have originated at any sitting of the Middlesex magistrates. Certain circumstances were stated relative to the separation system; but any one who knew anything of that system must know also, that it had never been in force in the Penitentiary at Millbank. It was true, that some separate cells had been made there, but as yet nobody had been confined in any of those cells. Certain prisoners had been named as having been confined in them, and two were mentioned as having been affected with idiotcy in consequence. He did not 99 know the exact state of the persons referred to at the present moment, but he was sure that none of the effects alleged to have been produced had taken place. In the reports, however, which had been made, it had been stated, that these were persons of disorderly behaviour; and complaints had been made that they did not conform to the rules of the prison. Another equally erroneous statement had been made with respect to a convict named Julia Newman. She was sent to the Penitentiary at the express request of the Recorder of London. After some time her conduct was reported to be very violent, and that it had the appearance of proceeding from insanity; but the medical men thought that it was a sham and not real; the case was referred to them again and again from the Home-office; the surgeons were not convinced that there were any real paroxysms, but consented that the convict should be removed to a lunatic asylum, whether she really were mad or not. On this she was removed to the place where the female lunatics were confined. But with regard to the Penitentiary, the prisoners were not sent there by the sole choice of the Secretary of State; they were sent generally after strong recommendations to that effect from the chairman of the quarter sessions, or at the earnest request of their friends, who were anxious that the sentence of transportation might not be carried into effect, but that some means of a return to honesty might be afforded. Under the first of these reasons were the three young persons whose cases had been mentioned received; just as in other cases which were continually happening, in which, after conviction, the magistrates recommended confinement in the Penitentiary. He believed that the whole story which had been propagated was entirely without foundation. If it were necessary to make further inquiry he would not have the least objection to make it, but he saw no use in laying the papers before the House on a statement so extravagant, and which he must say was totally false. He had been informed, also, that the convict Newman, after she had been sent to Bethlem Hospital, had owned that she had feigned insanity in order to obtain a pardon.
§ Subject dropped.