§ MR. MAGUIREsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he is aware of the fact that the operation of one of the provisions of the Penal Servitude Bill will be to abolish the Refuges for Female Convicts in Ireland; and, if so, whether the Irish Government had been consulted upon the matter, and had approved or otherwise the abolition of said probationary institutions?
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, said, it was not the intention of the Government, in preparing the Penal Servitude Bill, to interfere in any way with the practice which prevailed in Ireland of sending female convicts having tickets-of-leave to refuges, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, from which he believed very beneficial results had arisen. He had been in communication with the Irish Government on the subject, and he had given notice of an Amendment in Committee on the Penal Servitude Bill, which would effectually accomplish 1078 the object which the hon. Member very properly had in view.