§ MR. PEASEsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he has received any information relative to the case of George Maw, a prisoner in Durham County Gaol, who received corporal punishment there on the 14th April last, for an alleged assault on a warder of the prison?
MR. BRUCESir, I have communicated with the local authorities and have received from them a good deal of documentary evidence bearing on the subject. It appears that George Maw, who had been very frequently convicted, and occasionally for acts of violence, was committed to gaol for 14 days, with hard labour. Two days before the time when he could have left the prison, he committed a very outrageous assault on a warder, and when a prisoner interfered to protect the warder, Maw assaulted him also. Under these circumstances, an inquiry was instituted by a magistrate, in the absence of the visiting justices, and the magistrate, in the exercise of his discretion, and with perfect legality, 788 ordered him to receive 24 lashes. It is not my business to criticize minutely the manner in which the magistrate exercised his discretion. Another magistrate might possibly have taken a different view on the subject; but it is impossible for me to say that this magistrate, having regard to the protection and safety of the warders, who are constantly exposed to danger, did unduly and excessively exercise the discretion reposed in him by the law when he ordered this punishment to be inflicted. It has been asserted that at the time this punishment was inflicted on Maw he was suffering from delirium tremens; but it does not appear to me that there is any evidence to support the statement.