§ MR. BAGWELLsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether directions have been sent by the Home Office to Sir Richard Mayne that the twenty men of the Metropolitan Police appointed to guard the Model Prison at Pentonville should be Englishmen, and whether it is true that this duty is to be confined to men of English birth, and that no Irish constable shall be allowed to do duty there?
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, said, the hon. Gentleman had privately given him notice of his intention to put a Question to him relative to a statement that had appeared in one of the morning papers. All he (Sir George Grey) could say was, that the paragraph was without founda- 817 tion. No such instructions had been given by him. The twenty men referred to in that paragraph were the men who were permanently stationed at the Caledonian Road Police Station for ordinary duty, and were stationed there long before any Fenian convicts were confined in Pentonville Prison. Directions, however, had been given about a month ago that two of these policemen should patrol round the prison at night. He was unable to say whether the twenty men referred to were of English, Irish, or Scotch birth,