§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether the Resolution passed by the Justices assembled at the last Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of the county of Berks has been taken into consideration, according to promise, by the Secretary of State for War, as follows:—
Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Court that it is unjust that Military prisoners be sent to Reading Gaol as long as there is room for them in the Military prisons of the country;39 and, whether, in any case, if the War Office resorts to such a practice, they ought not at least to pay to the county the same proportion of expense for the use and establishment of the gaol as is paid by the borough making use of the county gaol in the same way?
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTON, in reply, said, the rule of the Army was that soldiers sentenced to imprisonment only were confined in the Military prisons, but when the sentence was imprisonment and dismissal from the army at the end of the term, offenders in those cases were always sent to the county gaols. With respect to the amount paid for their maintenance, it was settled by the Act of 1863. It was not in his power to authorize any departure from those rules.