§ SIR TINDAL ROBERTSON (Brighton)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been directed to a recent Report, addressed to the Governor of the State of New York, as to the best mode of conducting the execution of criminals in that state; and, whether he is prepared to recommend the adoption of either of the methods recommended in that Report—namely, execution by electricity, or by the injection of morphia, or by the lethal chamber invented for the painless killing of the lower animals by Dr. B. W. Richardson, or of any other system of executing criminals more in accordance with the humane feelings of the present day than the barbarous and unscientific method now practised in this country?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)No, Sir; my attention has not been called to this Report; but I have seen a copy of an Act recently passed in the State of New York providing for the infliction of the death penalty by electricity. The Government are not prepared to introduce legislation with the view of altering the method of carrying out executions. I will, however, undertake to give careful consideration to the suggestions of my hon. Friend.