§ MR. PICKERSGILLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why, in the private exami- 295 nation recently conducted by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors, Captain Wilson, inside Strangeways Gaol, Manchester, relative to the death of W. H. Gatcliffe, owing to the breaking of six of his ribs and his breast bone, two persons who could have given important evidence were not examined, namely, Dr. Kitchen, who made a post-mortem, examination of the prisoner's body, and Henry Mac-Birnie, a prisoner who occupied the next-bed to that of the deceased?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThe persons named had already given evidence on three different occasions before the coroner, the stipendiary, and the Judge, and there was no reason for their further examination by the Inspector, who had their evidence before him, and exercised his discretion in a manner with which I am quite satisfied as to what witnesses could be most usefully examined by him.
§ MR. PICKERSGILLIs it not the fact that on the occasion referred to the evidence was confined to an investigation as to whether a certain person was guilty or not; whereas the investigation of Captain Wilson would occupy a much larger field?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI do not think that the post-mortem examination was calculated to throw any light upon the matter.