§ MR. R. W. PERKS (Lincolnshire, South)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the Rev. J. S. Harris, Wesleyan minister, of Manchester, was recently refused permission by the Governor of Strangeways Prison to see a prisoner in the room set aside for ministerial visits to prisoners, on the ground that clergymen belonging to the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church are alone entitled to such a privilege; and whether there is any reason why prisoners belonging to other Nonconformist Churches should not be entitled to receive ministerial visits from their clergy upon precisely the same footing and subject to the same regulations as prisoners do who belong to the Roman Catholic Church?
§ MR. ASQUITHThe Rev. J. S. Harris did apply to see a remanded prisoner in Manchester Prison, but as the prisoner had declared himself on reception as of the Church of England, and the Governor understood that the visit was to be as that of the prisoner's minister, he did not permit it to take place. The Governor denies having stated that clergymen of the Church of England and of the Roman Catholic Church are alone entitled to such a privilege, as he well knew that, under Schedule I., Regulation 47, Prison Act, 1865, a prisoner has the right to be visited by the minister of the church to which he belongs. On his conviction, on the 11th instant, the above prisoner declared himself a Wesleyan, and applied yesterday to see Mr. Harris as his minister, and the Governor at once wrote to that gentleman asking him to call and see the prisoner.