§ Viscount Mahonwished to ask his right hon. Friend, the Secretary for the Home Department, whether it was his intention to act on the decision of that House, and to diminish the number of convicts permanently detained in the hulks at the different seaports in this country, although they had been sentenced to transportation? He wished to know whether his right lion. Friend in the administration of his department had endeavonred to diminish the number of convicts so detained at home, and to increase those sent abroad?
§ Sir J. Grahamcould assure his noble Friend that the Government had not lost sight of the decision to which the House had come last Session on the motion of his noble Friend. The Government were now endeavouring gradually, and he hoped successfully, to diminish the number of convicts detained at home. During the past year, 1,000 convicts had been sent to Gibraltar to labour at the repairs of that fortress; and his noble Friend at the head of the Admiralty was favourable to sending a number of convicts to the settlement of Gambier, in South Australia. During the next year, he believed the number of convicts at home would be diminished by 1,000 or 1,500.