§ THE EARL OF HARDWICKEasked Her Majesty's Government, Whether the report in the daily journals of the 26th of June respecting a sentence passed on Catherine Connoly by Mr. Barstow was correct?
§ THE EARL OF FIFE,in reply, said, he thought it was only right that he should state that the offence with which this woman was charged was one of a serious nature against prison discipline—namely, conveying tobacco into a prison. When she was charged she made no defence, nor did she state that she was the wife of the prisoner to whom she brought the tobacco; but merely stated that she had been persuaded by a man to put it into the cake she brought. It must be pointed out that even a wife could not be allowed to break the law of prison discipline with impunity, and that if such an idea were to prevail it would be necessary to forbid the visits of wives to husbands in prison, and thus the innocent would suffer for the guilty. Under the circumstances of the case, and considering especially that the husband was already in prison, and that the home would be rendered altogether destitute, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with the entire concurrence of the magistrate who tried the case, had ordered the remission of the remaining portion of the sentence. The woman was accordingly liberated yesterday.