§ MR. MONSELLwished to ask the right hon. Baronet the Home Secretary a ques- 751 tion, with reference to which he was afraid the lives of many persons were involved. He believed it was well known in and out of that House that the cholera had broken out with great virulence at Limerick. He found by the returns that in the Limerick gaol there were some hundreds of prisoners confined, and 138 convicts under sentence of transportation. The board of superintendence had lately enlarged the prison; but notwithstanding all the exertions they had used, the present lamentable state of things existed. Eight or ten prisoners slept in a cell, and the day-room accommodation was very limited. If, then, the cholera broke out in such a crowded place, he feared it would be productive of most disastrous consequences; and therefore he wished to know whether the Government were prepared to take the necessary steps for the removal of the 138 convicts, who ought to have been sent out of the country long ago, and whether they would provide additional accommodation for the remaining prisoners?
§ SIR G. GREYsaid, he had freely admitted the other night, that the prisons in Ireland were crowded at present to a most dangerous extent, and that a correspondence had taken place between the Government and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the subject. Every effort was being made to afford accommodation, and within a week or two room would be obtained at the Government depot at Spike Island, and ships would be provided as speedily as possible for the reception of those who were under sentence of transportation. He was not aware that cholera had broken out in any of the Irish gaols; but it was necessary to guard against such a visitation; and one mode of doing this was, to permit the local justices to recommend the discharge of all prisoners who had nearly completed their respective terms of confinement, and whose conduct had been such as to entitle them to a manifestation of lenity.