§ Bill read 3a (according to Order).
§ LORD RAVENSWORTHsaid, that in order to mark his opinion of the Bill he should move pro form&00E2; a new clause, to provide that all prisoners who might be within the walls of the prison at the time when an execution took place should be present when the punishment was inflicted. He did not, however, intend to ask the House to divide upon the clause.
§ THE DUKE OF RICHMONDsaid, he could not sanction such a clause. Even if prepared to agree to its principle—which he was not—he thought the wording of the clause rendered it quite inadmissible. It applied to all prisoners at the time of the execution confined within the walls of the particular prison, untried as well as those who had been convicted. Now, the principle of English law was that every man was presumed to be innocent till proved guilty; and why should they compel those to witness a most harrowing scene who might, the very next day, be acquitted of all crime? Besides, among those who were convicted there was every gradation of offence, from mere vagrancy to the gravest crime; but this clause treated all without distinction, and required their presence at the infliction of capital punishments within the prison, thus superadding no inconsiderable punishment to that which the sentence of the law had pronounced upon them. There was no reason, justice, or expediency that warranted the adoption of such a clause. Under these circumstances he should give it a direct negative.
§ Amendment negatived; Bill passed,