§ SIR HENRY HALFORDsaid, he begged to ask the noble Lord the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to a petition from the justices of peace for the county of Leicester, in quarter-sessions assembled, whether it was in contemplation of Her Majesty's Government to introduce any measure for adaptation of the law regarding prisons to the system of the individual separation of prisoners, as applied to those under sentence of hard labour, and generally in order to carry out the recommendation of the Select Committee of this House on Prison Discipline, in 1850?
§ VISCOONT PALMERSTONsaid the communication which he received from the magistrates of Leicester turned on this point. The visiting justices had established a rule in the prison, that persons sentenced to hard labour should be employed eight hours a day in turning a crank, and if they rejected or refused to do so, they were deprived of a certain portion of their daily meals. It appeared to his predecessor in the office of Secretary of State that that regulation was not borne out by law, and probably the opinion was well founded. If the hon. Baronet's question was whether it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to bring in a Bill to legalise such an arrangement, his answer was that it was not the intention of Her Majesty's Government so to do.