§ MR. SWIFT, said he wished to inquire of the right hon. Baronet the Home Secretary whether it was true that Roman Catholic prisoners in the House of Correction, Wandsworth, who decline to attend the Church of England service, are confined to their respective cells in solitude during the entire of the Sunday? whether prisoners registered as Roman Catholics are systematically visited by the Protestant chaplain of the institution, furnished exclusively with Protestant books of devotion and controversy, and no Catholic clergyman admitted to them unless when the prisoner makes a special application to see one? and whether during the last year the number of Catholic prisoners had been sometimes upward of eighty, of whom only a dozen received any sort of religious instruction from a clergyman of their creed?
§ SIR GEGRGE GREYsaid, that in the Wandsworth House of Correction, the system of separate confinement was strictly carried out, and under that system all the prisoners remained in cells except during exercise, school hours, or attendance on divine worship. If any prisoners declined to attend divine worship, they were not removed from their cells. With respect to the second part of the question, he had to state that the Protestant chaplain had, in conformity with his instructions, to visit all prisoners who did not claim the privilege, in consequence of dissenting from the Established Church, of being attended by a clergyman of their own persuasion. With regard to Catholic prisoners, their cells were not furnished with books of a controversial character, but a Bible and other books were supplied to them. Such were the ordinary rules; and every prisoner, if not a member of the Church of England, might claim the right to be visited by his own clergyman. All the Roman Catholic prisoners had had notice to that effect read them at the request of Dr. Grant the Roman Catholic bishop. He would take the present opportunity of answering a question of a similar character which the hon. Member had put on the paper of a former evening, and which appeared to imply some censure on the authorities of Newgate prison. The question had reference to the criminal who had recently suffered the last sentence of the law. Having investigated the facts of the case, he found that the authorities of Newgate prison were absolved from all degree 836 of censure, having only acted in strict accordance with their duty.
§ MR. SWIFTgave notice that he would call the attention of the House to the entire subject at a future period.