§ MR. BIGGARasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true that a prisoner named Anthony "Welsh committed suicide in Her Majesty's Prison at Durham on Wednesday, the 5th instant, by hanging himself to the bell-pull in his cell on the morning of his admission; about three hours thereafter; how it was possible for such a crime to be perpetrated in open day in a prison, and by such a method, without attracting his warder's attention; is the Governor of Durham Prison a Military gentleman; and are a large proportion of the prison officers, male, ex-soldiers or ex-policemen; have any complaints reached him as to alleged ill-treatment of any Military prisoner in Durham by any of these officers; have any prisoners, Military or Civilian, been found dead in their cells at Durham; and, if so, how many cases have been reported within the last eighteen months; if an inquest follows in such cases before a coroner and a jury of citizens of Durham; at such inquiry has the prison surgeon proved, before coroner and jury, that the cell in which the dead body was found was kept in winter at a warmer 1338 temperature than that of the bedrooms of many gentlemen; do the prison rules permit the infliction of flogging as a punishment on a Military prisoner by the mere order of the Governor; and, has the Colonel Governor presided on any Sunday afternoon at as many as three courts martial upon as many prisoners, and have those prisoners been sentenced and flogged during the same week?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTsaid, it was true that a military prisoner named Welsh did commit suicide in Durham Gaol three hours after admission. An inquest had been held. Flogging was not allowed on a mere order from the Governor.