MR. CHAINING (Northampton, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, having regard to the admitted desirability of exempting certain classes of prisoners from the rules of prison treatment drawn up for ordinary criminals, he will assent to the Second Reading of the Prisons Act Amendment Bill, subject to any amendments, legal or administrative, which the Home Office may think necessary?
§ MR. MATTHEWSI regret that I do not feel able to assent to the Second Reading of the Prisons Act Amendment Bill, which makes changes in the law larger and more sweeping than have ever been admitted to be desirable by myself or by my predecessors in office. I can only refer the hon. Member to an answer I gave on March 15th, 1889, to a similar question from the hon. Member for the Spalding Division.