§ MR. JACOB BRIGHTasked the First Lord of the Treasury, If he is aware that in the borough of Southampton, from September last year to June of this year, twenty-nine women went to prison, seven of them going a second time and two a third time, in some cases with hard labour, rather than submit themselves to the hands of the State surgeon; whether it is not true that there are, over a considerable portion of the kingdom, agents of the Admiralty and of the War Office, whose business it is to watch women in order to subject them to similar usage; and whether, in the opinion of the Government, the personal security of women in this country is now what it ought to be, or such as the Law carefully guarantees to men?
MR. GLADSTONEI need not say, Sir, that I have no original knowledge of the facts to which the question of my hon. Friend refers; but I have made inquiry, and I understand that the facts are as follows:—That between September of last year and June of the present year 29 persons, women, were sent to prison; seven of them were subsequently committed for a second time, and two of them were sentenced a third time, but were only sent to prison twice. With regard to the second question, I am not aware and cannot learn that there are over any portion of the kingdom any agents of the Admiralty and of the War Office whose business it is to watch women in order to subject them to similar usage. I understand that the Act of Parliament devolves certain duties upon the police force of the country; these duties are performed; but the War Office and the Admiralty, I am assured, have no agents whatever employed for the purpose indicated by my non. Friend. With regard to the third question, which refers rather to a matter of opinion than of fact, Her Majesty's Government have advised the Crown to appoint a Commission, in order to examine whether the personal security of women has all the guarantees on which it ought to rest by the Act. The Commission, as my hon. Friend knows, has reported, and the Secretary of State for the Home Department stated to the House on a former evening that although he was not prepared to make any im- 155 mediate proposal on the subject the Report of the Commission is a very proper subject for the consideration of Parliament.