§ MR. HARDCASTLEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Under what prison regulation George Victor Townley, sent from Bedlam to Pentonville as an ordinary prisoner under sentence of penal servitude for life, was there allowed access to books of entertaining literature such as Silvio Pellico and Gil Blas?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, in reply, that by the rules no books were allowed to be read by prisoners, except those contained in the prison library approved by the Directors of Convict Prisons. On the recent appointment of a new Governor of Pentonville, he found that a practice had grown up under his predecessor of departing from that rule, and in certain cases allowing prisoners to receive books sent them by their friends if not disapproved of by the Chaplain. This practice was immediately put a stop to.