§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If he can state to the House the scope of the inquiry about to be hold with reference to Convict Prisons, and whether its proceedings will be public?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS,in reply, said, he had made the terms of the Commission which was about to issue as wide as possible, in order that the Commissioners might inquire into any matter which they thought bore upon the question. As to the mode of the inquiry, he believed that, according to the practice usual in such cases, that rested with the Commissioners them-solves. He was quite sure the noble Lord at the head of the Commission would do everything that was fair and right. For his own part, he should offer no opposition to the inquiry being held in public, if it appeared that by such means more ample justice would be done than was likely to result from a private inquiry.
§ MR. CHILDERSWill it be a Royal Commission?