§ MR. LOWEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether there is now in the convict prisons of England room for the penal servitude convicts confined in the prison at Gibraltar; whether Her Majesty's Government proposes to abide by the decision arrived at by the late Government to abolish this prison as soon as sufficient accommodation could be provided in the English prisons; and, whether if this decision be set aside, the change is due to more favourable reports of the condition 22 and discipline of the prisons at Gibraltar?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, there was now room enough in the public prison to accommodate the convicts at Gibraltar. No convicts had been sent from England to Gibraltar since the winter of 1871; the prisoners at present confined there would as soon as convenient be brought home, and the prison at Gibraltar would be closed. Should it be found absolutely necessary to employ convict labour at Gibraltar, wholly new arrangements would have to be made; but no step would be taken in that direction until after full inquiry into the whole subject.