§ Sir J. Grahamwould not detain the House in rising to move for leave to bring in a bill, to carry into effect a. recommendation contained in the report of a commission issued from the Home-office, when the noble Lord the Member for the City of London was at the head of it, on the subject of prison discipline. The object of the recommendation was the formation of a model prison. The House was aware that that prison had been in the course of erection for some time, and 1177 that it would be ready for the reception of prisoners in the course of July next, but it was requisite before it was occupied that an act of Parliament should be passed, enacting the regulations under which it was to be governed. By the bill which he proposed it was intended that there should not be less than seven, or more than sixteen commissioners, and that they should be empowered to make rules for the regulation of the prison, and that they also should appoint the subordinate officers of it. It also enacted that they should lay an annual report before Parliament, stating the rules which they had adopted, and also the effects which the system of discipline had had on the persons confined in the prison. He might add that the works for this prison which had been estimated at 90,000l., had cost less than that sum, and that it would contain the means of confinement for 510 prisoners. The right hon. Baronet concluded with moving for leave to bring in a bill for the regulation of the Pentonville prison.
§ Motion agreed to. Bill read a first time.