The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-15 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT GAOLS BILL.

A special meeting of the magistrates of the county
of Mi..ldlesex was held yesterday at the sessions
House, Cierkenwell-green, to consider the Gaols Bill
now before the House of Commons, and to take such
measures regarding the said bill as the Court may
deem necessary.
Mr. HENRY POWNALL occupied the chair.

The report of the Parliamentary Committee of the
Court was presented by Mr. Turner, which, after
alluding to the bill, merely recommended some
slight addition to one of the clauses.

Mr. Sergeant PAYNE said under this bill powers
would be given to the Secretary of State to alter and
annul rules for the government of prisons. At the
present time the clerk of the peace was required to
send once a year all existing rules fcr the govern-
ment of prisons approved by the justices and all new
rules which were proposed, an& when a certificate,
was received that they had been sanctioned by him
they had the force of law; but under the 4th clause
of the present bill it was enacted, " That it shall be
lawful for one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State, by writing under his hand, from time to
time, and without such rules being submitted to him,
to annul, alter, or add to any rules for the time being
in force for the government of any gaol, and any
rules made by the said Secretary of State in pur-
suance of this section shall be binding upon sheriffs
and all other persons during the time that they are
in force." Therefore it was clear that under this
section he would have power to put his pen through
all the rules that were then in existence, or alter them
in any way that he might think it fit to do. He could
wipe out all existing rules and orders, and make new
rules and orders without consulting the justices at
all, and therefore he said that this bill would give the
Secretary of State powers which were contrary and
repugnant to the very spirit of the Constitution of
the country. If it were not so, then, he asked, what
was the use of this act of Parliament ? By the act of
the sth and 6th William IV., it was required that
all rules in force, with copies of proposed rules,
should be submitted to the Secretary of State; but
by the fourth clause of this act he could alter,
annul, or add to any rules without their being sub-
witted to him, and such rules or altered rules
would ba binding upon all persons. That was a
most dangerous clause, and one that ought never
to have been submitted to the House of Commons.
There was no doubt that Sir George Grey had been
pestered by a certain class of persons out of doors,
and scarcely knew what to do, but he (Mr. Payne)
did not believe that his own mind went with such
an enactment as that. The learned sergeant having
read the sth clause of the bill, said that clause
would give him power to authorise a Roman Catho-
lic chapel to be built in Coldbath-fields prison, and
if that was not complied with he could order the
Roman Catholic prisoners to be removed to some
other gaol, there enter a contract for the erection of
a new Roman Catholic chapel, and then call upon
the magistrates of the county, and they would be
bound to pay for it.
Mr. SWIFT said Sir George Grey had disavowed,
in the House of Commons, any intention of doing
anything of the kind.
Mr. Sergeant PAYNE said that might be so, but
Sir George Grey would not always be Secretary of
State. This bill placed that power in the office of
Secretary of State, and the question was not what
he intended to do, but what the law authorised him
to do. He could enter into contracts which were
binding on the justices, but the Secretary of State
incurred no liability whatever. He bound the jus-
tices, but he refused to be bound himself, and said
he was not liable for anything. When the money
was to be paid, he:stepped behind the screen, say.
ing, " These are the gentlemen who are to pay ; I
am not liable." His (Mr, Payne's) objection to the
bill was that it gave the Secretary of State an un-
constitutional power. He could bind the magi-
strates without their consent in any way he pleased ;
he could call upon them to pay any expenditure he
might incur out of the county rate. Their autho•
rity was set at nought, and they would be no
longer the guardians of the county rate or the county
purse. His objection was not merely to the power
of appointing Roman Catholic chaplains, but it was
to the principle of the bill ; for such undefined, un-
limited, and dangerous powers ought not to be given
to any man. He hoped the Court would agree to
his motion to petition the House of Commons
against the bill, and if that should be agreed to he
would then submit a form of petition.
Mr H. 11. HARWOOD seconded the motion. He
seconded the requisition to call this meeting ; for
ibis was a matter the deepest importance to the
county, and they ought not to allow the opportu-
nity to pass without giving expression to their
feelings on the subject. The Court of Aldermen of
the City of London had already taken action on this
bill, and they thought it strange that they were not
backed up by the magistrates of the county. The
preamble stated that " it was expedient to amend
the law relating to gaols, and to discontinue certain
gaols that are inadequately provided with the means
of regulating the discipiiue and classification of
prisoners;" and as in many instances the governor
had almost the entire control, the placing this power
in the hands of a competent authority might be
attended with good results. But the most unrea-
sonable and the most objectionable part of the bill
was the fourth section. It had been drawn with
great art, ingenuity, and subtlety, and seemed to be
totally unconnected with the bill. The Parliamen-
tary committee said this bid gave the Secretary of
State no more power than he then possessed : 'out
be said then, cui bono—what was the u5.,4 of this
clause ? •

Mr TURNER said when the rtil,es were submitted
to the Secretary of State b
could alter the whole
of them, and he c0u1.:14 add fifty new ones if he
..
thought fit.

Mr HARWr
oOD said even if he admitted that, he
did not '4ee the use of this clause in the bill unless
it r:eas for some lurking mischief; but he hoped
chat was said in that court would be spread over
the length and breadth of the land, and show that
the magistrates of this county had discussed the
measure, so that the hands of those country gentle-
men who had seats in the House of Commons .might
be strenghthened in recording their Votes again
the bill.

Mr. TURNER did net believe ',hat the bill was in-
tended to take from the Zona the power that the
Prison Ministers mill gave tlicisn, for if ktinh
were made r..cl to be in opposition to that bill they
Would 'oecome void. That was a recognised prin.
eiple of law. No power would be given by it to
alter the law of the land, but merely to carry it
out, and nothing more.
Mr. Sergeant PAYNE having shortly replied,
The CrIAIRMAN put the motion, which was car.
tied. with about four dissntienta.
Mr. Sergeant PAYNE then moved the following
petition be presented to the House of/ Commons
against the bill t

" The Petition of the Magistrates of the
County of Midalesex—
" Showeth—rhat your petitioners have observed
with surprise and regret that a bill applying to
all county and city prisonsgaols, and houses of
correction in England has been introduced into
your boa .
by which most undefined powers
are proposedhDuts'O' be given to one of her Majesty's
Princir,',4l Secretaries of State to annul, atter, or
add. to any rules for the time being in hirce for the
government of any gaol, without the concurrence
of her Majesty's justices of the peace for such
counties or cities, and for authorising such Secre-
tary of State in certain cases to make contracts in
ho names of such justices, by which they are to be
bound without their consent to pay out of the
county rates for the removal to, and the lodging
and maintenance of county and city prisoners in
otietr gaols; and the said bill also proposes to give
ouch Secretary of State the Power of making a par-
tial order applying to particular prisoners or par-
ticular classes of prisoners confined in such gaols,
and to make the keeper of any prison who disobeys
such order of the Secretory of State subject to a
penalty of £2O per day, in addition to any other
punishment to which he may be liable.
"That such provisions are contrary to the exist-
ing regulations, by which the Government cf
placed under the direc-
tcounty f
the
ed
countycity prigsnodnesiatyre
justices,
who have now

' the power to make rules, orders, and regulations
for the government of such prisons, subject to the
approval of the Secretary of State, and your peti-
tioners humbly suggest that the granting of such
general and undefined powers to a Secretary of
State would be entirely unprecedented, and that
the provisions of the said bill, if carried into effect,
would not only be a great inroad on the rights of
the county aLd city
magistrates throughout the
kingdom, and subject the ratepayers in counties to
a large and excessive taxation, but would also be
subversive of that system of local self-government
which has always been found to be most useful and
,ffective.

" Your petitioners therefore humbly pray, that
as the said bill proposes to gie e such extraordinary
and undefined powers to an officer or the Govern-
ment, contrary to the spirit of the existing laws,
and constquently subversive of the powers of the
magistrates, and to the detriment of the ratepayers
of the country, that the said provisions may not pass
into a law, and your petitioners will ever pray."
Captain MoRLEY seconded the motion.

The CHAIRMAN supported some portions of the
bill, which empowered the Secretary of State to
order prisoners confined for short periods to be put
in smaller cells than those committed for long
periods.

Mr WALTERS, while looking upon some parts of
the bill as dangerous to be put into the hands of the
Secretary of State, said there were some parts of it
that would be really beneficial, and, so far, the in-
tentions of the Legislature ought not to be frus-
trated,

The CHAIRMAN pat the motion for the adoption
of the petition, which Was agreed to.
A discussion then arose as to the presentation of
the petition, and a motion
was made that Mr New-
degate, who had a motion on the paper, should pre-
sent th© petition to the House of Commons, to
which an amendment was moved that it should be
presented by the members for the county (Lord En-
field and Mr Hanbuil); and it was carried by a
majority of one that the presentation should be en-
trusted to Mr Newdegate.

There being no other business, the court adjourned.

Something Like a Fashionable Marriage,

(From the London Review.)
When a notorious criminal is executed, the envoys
of the Press, it is well known, are on the ground all
night, bivouacking boldly with the crowd. The
Morning Post seems to have accorded the same
proud recognition to Lord Frederick Cavendish
that the Times did last February to the five pirates.
At a very early hour—long before the ceremony
was to begin; we find its faithful emissary reli-
giously attending a matntinal service in the Abbey.
How he got there, or why he went there, unless he
had been in a pew throughout the night, it is not
easy to explain. There, however, he was seated,
watoiaing the worshippers, looking at the carriages
as they arrived, and lost in astonishment at the
number of coronets, which was so great that he was
driven to exchange confidences with an Abbey
verger on the subject. The picture of the inde-
tatigable matrimonial correspondent talking affably
to the police and the Cathedral officers about the
carriages is instructive and edifying :
" A veteran official in Dean's-yard was heard to express
his opinion that Dean's-yard had never been so full of
coroneted carriages since her Majesty's coronation.,,
h lThisd isb e gathered.he prope proper
Itway
i s jail Which information
s bright example to
foreign correspondents throughout Europe. We
can conceive how, on such a subject, the matrimo-
nial correspondent would treasure up everything
that fell from the lips of so great an authority, and
how important he would feel it to get the numbers
of coronets in their right and accurate order. The
early ten o'clock service soon began and ended; the
matrimonial correspondent somewhat severely, and,
we think, pharisaically, remarks that the object of
those present was less devotion than the gratifica-
tion of feminine curiosity. This appears an uncha-
ritable censure from one who had been in a pew all
night, and who accordingly could attend morning
prayers on this occasion without much additional
trouble. After service the Abbey was cleared of
strangers. But the matrimonial correspondent was
soon back again, if indeed he was put out at all ;
and we have a burst of descriptive power which
seems clearly modelled on the famous description in
Ms'aulay of the trial of Warren Hastings :
The friends and relatives of the bride and bridegroom
took their places early, There were the Bishop of Oxford
and Lord Houghton, Earl Stanhope sat next to the Queen's
Advocate, Sir John Pakington behind them, and Black
Rod opposite. The Earl of Powis, High Steward of the
University of which the bridegroom's father is the
"honoured Lord and Chancellor," was seen far away under
the pulpit.

lan-eimthpeorrtuafnatraaswa
pendent had acifdsisatyialii3;4,
way
written,a view
wder the pulpit" is a pic-
turesquear reading-desk, ewe ki
t, it tt
Ise
e mb e r that
choir
ssttßeheel
put:
:se
sak,l, o,
rhoedto sat,
thr ea
bridet remember
junctionit is
cll
that the matrimonial corres-
of his lordship in the
oasneldythat
a a
ltt that, to decide. On a matter
principal performers
at, where Earl Powis and
pity that history sllould be
pwoisltleddothwemel!
At half-past 12 the clergy
whose entered,appearancen
till the oil..
of the choir with the tran-
selves " at
Admiration,'' Then
teoieionniefttyßet of "the the clergy betook themselves to the
So waited the audience
thaturallyea,m,
eeli.eitAedt aunqiuvaerrtseari
yr Rev.ec, i 0 ke fiWe wasld.
attended by bridemaids,
bride and blidegrootiman.m iatritrltoiaaogfkteefireommenced. It
lifefive
e clergymen
lteor
gt
yh emne onbtl
to
the opening esbortation.and
that;ion
Rev. F. E. Grey read
wmPa.rilrbyetahelamro."Trheecollece.
H.
wilasttsouitcocuee.deid,hienh
usvtyhaietholor.d.These are
prayers were
turnst.T.hhFe vbeyr
Jonesaßev.i thel :IH7varon.hnden.
63 and
e. ,
Brookfield
chanted by the Rev,
admirably hearpd
read the concluding exhe
who by this time
exhortation. Last of all the
Hon. and Rev. W.
Lytto-
had recovered himself agaei gave the benediction.
played out theu " Wedding March,"
Through a dense crowd of
40't.Th:iconrdgeainsaiastha,
the
bell
8 of the " Old Abbey,'
rie.adTesouatntc; tt:lnitylempeeahl.
the •
bride and bridegroom
large crowd assembled
passed `,O the Jerusalem Oh
amher, where the regis-
ter was signed. A veryst
adds the matri-
monial the Deanery to
e the newly-married
:11,1:argnedn'uine flow of sen-
cmoounpilaelecnotrerrestphoeinrdecnatr,rvviatigit
timent and eethustasw,
..0Y hat was Tatescd i"
That this is the right style
totiortitthe historian of the
Mite in cannot be dis-
puted.Piatureemarri a g elstoifat hpeaawt ieortfoacit: a e y
and under all of it we every nowclues and animated,
of a and then seem to
catch the fresh gushings human heart. Few
it all that child-
writers could go day after
,_ day to
isotequally ready
see noblemen
turned off, and preserve through
liaiketheiempdliisceihtyargoef naaftarde
thedown what
veteran officials have to say about'i
carriages,
or to raise its bat to
the things that make us all 0
There
is a kind of evergreen literaryy young.
Tability that
always astonishes us, while it charm, a matri-
monial correspondence of the papers istone type of
it. Another and squally remarkable
advertisements ype is the
flow of poetical description i
-13 the
of auctioneers. What a genius
life distinct and
ronhn he
was"hausts j,
must be required
take t.c, describe
-watered pasture lands
at olikt he life-likeeepe pal
ll
al
n Whattdh the
lawns
ww enads
gdaeietindgi
usws
ei
must
1
about Surrey mansions which are to be sold or let,
so vividly and yet so differently ! That the world
knows nothing of its greatest men is a refleciim
14cult or impossible
ftrooemscwaphei.ch oFcaclalsimonaanlylyaitviisildaige
Hampden, if
we
are to believe Grey's elegy, lies buried in the
. ciuoutntitary;LTolol
tz.pnyoolailolton79flsi thea 71,1 awyn
t!,i;
Pest.buried

MADAME TUSSAUD.B.—Among the most noted
criminals of modern times, w
- ° may mention that of Doctor
Coaty de la Pommerais, who was guillotined a few days
since in Paris for poisoning Madame de Pauw, whom he
had induced to insure her life in his favour, under pretence
of being indebted to him in certain sums of money, and
who afterwards prevailed upon his victim to feign illness
for the more effectually carrying out his base designs by
slowly poisoning her. A. full length portrait model of the
cn'prit, taken from the original photograph by
Trin-
quart, of Paris, expressly for Madame Tussaud's
exhibi-
tion, is now added to the chamber of physiognomy in
Baker-street.

Royal Geographical Society.

LETTERS FROM DR. LIVINGSTONE.

At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society,
which was held at Burlington House last night—
Sir R, I. Murchison in the chair—two letters were
read from Dr. Livingstone, one of which had been
addressed to Sir R. Murchison and the other to
Admiral Washington. After the disposal of some
formal business, the secretary read the following
letter :

Murchison's Cataracts, Dec. 4, 1863.

My dear Sir Roderick,—The despatch containing inst: no-
tions for our withdrawal, though dated the 2d Feb., did not
reach me till the 2d of July, when the water had fallen so
much that the Pioneer could not be taken down to the
sea, To improve the time, therefore, between July and the
flood of December, I thought that I might see whether a
largo river enters the lake at the north end, and also
verify the impression that most of the slaves drawn to
Zanzibar, Roe, and Moz imb'que comer from the lake dis-
trict. Our plan was to rail round the east shore and north
end of Nyasa ; but we very unfortunately lost our boat by
five of our natives trying to show how much more clever
they were than the five Makololo who had the management
of it. It broke away from them in a comparatively still
reach of the river, and rushed away like a shot over the
cataracts. We then went forward on foot, and struck NW,
so as to come to the latitude of the north end of the lake
without coming in contact with the Mazite or Zulus, who
have depopulated its shores there. But we soon came on a
range of mountains running north and south. The valley
on its eastern base was 2,000 feet above the sea, of remark-
able beauty, and well supplied with streams of delicious
cold water. The range, at least 4,000 feet above it, forms
the edge of the high table land on which the Maravi dwell.
We were falsely informed that no people lived on the other
side, and went along the valley till we came out at the
neck of the lake—the bold mountainous promontory, Cape
Maclear, on our right, and the hills of Tsenge in front.
Again going north-west we came to a stockade which
the Mazite bad attacked the day before, and wo saw
the loathsome evidences of the fight, and wishing to
avoid them turned N.H. till we came to the lake and
marched along its shores. On coming to Kotakota Bay.
lat. 12.55 S. we found two Arabs busily engaged in tran-
sporting slaves across by means of their boats, and building
a dhow, to supply the place of one said to have been
wrecked.

SECOND EDITION.