LORD NAASsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether any alteration has taken place in the treatment of the Convicts at Bermuda; whether the hulks are still used; and whether there is any truth in the report that a Mutiny has lately occurred among the Convicts at that establishment?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, no change that he was aware of had taken place in the treatment of the convicts at Bermuda. With respect to the hulks one was not now used owing to the reduction in the number of convicts, but the other was still required, as there was not sufficient prison accommodation for the convicts on shore. No report of anything in the nature of a mutiny had reached the Colonial Office. With regard to the latter part of the noble Lord's inquiry, it would be seen by papers which had been laid upon the table last Session that there was great reason to doubt the accuracy of the statements made by the chaplains—statements, no doubt, well intended, but greatly exaggerated, and derived from information, in many cases not true, given by the men themselves. An intention had been entertained of sending out a special Commissioner, but a vacancy having occurred in the Governorship of Bermuda advantage had been taken of this opportunity to appoint a gentleman who was himself a military engineer, and whose ability was well-known at the Colonial Office, and from him the Government expected to receive at no very distant day a full report of all the circumstances.