§ MR. BRISCOEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he can give any information concerning the death of a boy named Joseph Marsden, which is reported to have been caused or accelerated by cruel usage at the Reformatory Hulk Akbar at Birkenhead?
§ MR. SOTHERON ESTCOURTsaid, he was glad that his hon. Friend had, by his question, afforded him an opportunity of correcting the misapprehensions which existed on this subject. A rumour had been circulated that a boy on board the Reformatory Hulk Akbar had been flogged to death. At his (Mr. Sotheron Estcourt's) request, Mr. Sydney Turner, one of the Inspectors of the Reformatories, had attended the investigation before the coroner, and had made inquiries into the case, and he conceived the best plan, perhaps, would be to read the Report he had received from that Gentleman. Mr. Turner said,
I beg to report, for the information of Mr. Secretary Sotheron Estcourt, that I was apprized by the Superintendent of the Akbar School Ship Reformatory, at Liverpool, of the sudden death of a boy named Joseph Marsden, under detention in that institution, and was informed by him that great excitement prevailed in connection with the event among the inhabitants of that part of Birkenhead which the ship is near, in consequence of the statements circulated and published in the newspapers that the boy had died in consequence of ill-usage, having been, as it was asserted, 'flogged to death.' I attended the adjourned inquest at Birkenhead, on Tuesday last, the 12th instant, in consequence, and have the honour to enclose herewith a full and correct report of the evidence given on the occasion and the verdict agreed to. From these it will be seen that the officers of the Akbar are fully exonerated from all blame in the matter, the boy's death resulting from natural causes, and nothing whatever of cruelty or ill-usage having been exercised towards him. The truth appears to be that the lad had been for some years a tramp and in the habit of feigning fits, lameness, &c., and that he had ac- 1862 quired a singular power of simulating an almost total suspension of circulation, respiration, &c., and that on this occasion he carried on the deception too long, producing a collapse of system which no remedies could recover him from.He (Mr. Estcourt) would not trouble the House with a reference to the evidence given at the inquest, but from having perused that evidence he could state that the opinion expressed by Mr. Turner was strictly in accordance with the facts elicited on oath before the coroner. The body of the boy exhibited no marks of violence after death, nor did a post mortem examination afford any trace of the cause of death externally or internally. He could not doubt the correctness of the opinion expressed by the inspector—that the boy having been accustomed to simulate a suspension of circulation had carried on his deception too long, and death had ensued.