§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If the account given in the "Times" of the 24th, of his reply to the Howard Deputation on the Prisons Bill, is substantially correct; and, whether that reply means that Government intend to deprive the local authorities of the power of appointing the prison chaplains, and also to deprive the local authorities of all control over the number, emoluments, and conditions of appointment of these officers?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, that by one of the clauses of the Bill, the appointment of all the officers was proposed to be transferred to the Secretary of State; but by a subsequent clause the appointment to subordinate offices was vested in the Prisons Commissioners, and not in the Secretary of State. What he had said was that, as 738 far as the appointment of subordinate offices was concerned, he had no objection to such appointments being left to the visiting justices. That, of course, did not apply to chaplains.