§ MR. PATRICK M'HUGH (Leitrim, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will cause an official inquiry to be made into the allegation that William Walden, who was tried and acquitted at the last Essex Assizes, was nearly starved in prison while awaiting his trial, and that, during his detention he was not allowed to see any newspaper with an account of his case in it?
§ *SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYI have not seen or heard of any such allegation. The prisoner received the ordinary diet of prisoners awaiting trial, and when asked if he wished to spend on food any of the money he received from his friends replied "No." Nor were any of the newspapers sent to him withheld, 181 with the exception of two which contained an account of the inquest on his brother, and the comments in which might, if was thought, be painful to him.