HC Deb 19 February 1810 vol 15 cc468-9

On the motion of Mr. W. Pole a correspondence was ordered to be laid before the House, respecting the state of the Irish prisons, which correspondence Mr. Pole immediately presented.

Mr. W. Pole

then rose to make his promised motion on the state of the prisons and on the prison laws of Ireland. He observed that the report of the commissioners who had been appointed to investigate this subject, sufficiently shewed the lamentable state of the prisons in Dublin. It was shocking to humanity, that the evils detailed in that report had so long been permitted to exist without any steps having been taken to remove them. A considerable part of those evils originated in the crouded state of the prisons; a circumstance which arose from the accumulation in them of persons sentenced to transportation, but whom it had been found impossible to send to Botany Bay. By the correspondence just laid upon the table, it would however appear, that since the report to which he alluded had been made, the condition of the prisoners had been considerably ameliorated. The prison laws of Ireland were contained in 14 acts of parliament. It had been thought advisable to compress these into one. The subject had been referred to the consideration of the great law officers, and particularly to the Chief Justice of the Kings Bench, in Dublin, who was at present engaged in digesting a system of prison law, for the purpose of its being introduced into the bill, which he hoped the House would allow him to bring in. He concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the laws respecting prisons in Ireland, for the purpose of reenacting several of them, with amendments.

Mr. Foster

seconded the motion.

Mr. M. Fitzgerald

had intended to take up the subject, but he was glad that it would now be done more effectually: particularly as the chief justice had made the digest, that eminent individual being no less distinguished for his humanity than his legal knowledge. A penitentiary for prisoners merely he approved; but, he hoped, it was not intended as a prelude to the establishment there of the poor laws of England, than which nothing could be more injurious to all ranks of people in Ireland. Leave was then given to bring in the bill.