THE MARQUESS OF BLANDFORDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the present system of imprisoning convicts in hulk ships in the naval arsenals was occupying his attention, and whether there was any intention of assimilating the accommodation for prisoners in those places to the more modern convict establishments of the country?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, the subject bad been under consideration for some time, and great progress had been made in the substitution of prisons on land for the hulk system. There was a prison almost ready at Chatham, which would render the two hulks at Woolwich unnecessary. There were only two other hulks, which were used for invalid convicts, and measures were being taken to find a site and erect a prison to receive invalid prisoners. When that was done there would then be no hulks used for the reception of convicts.