The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-19 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LORDS---This Evening.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.

POLAND.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH gave notice that to-
morrow he should ask the noble earl the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs whether there was any intention of lay-
ing on the table a despatch from the Consul-General at
Warsaw as far as related to the origin of the insurrection
in Poland, and also to ask the noble lord whe-
ther any despatch had been received from the Russian
Government relative to the origination of the outbreak ;
and also whether any communication had been received
from the Prussian Government as to the means to be taken
for its suppression.

ROME.
The Marquis of NORMANBY complained of some mis-
representation which had been made of a despatch which
he had written, and which had been referred to by the
noble earl opposite (Russell) the other evening,
Earl RUSSELL said he had quoted the despatch re-
ferred to by the noble marquis for the purpose of proving
the general position of the advantage of giving advice to
countries to follow the practice and usage of constitutional
liberty. He had not meant to imply that on the particu-
lar question at issue the sentiments of the noble marquis
were different from what they were.
The Marquis of NORMANBY said everything in the
despatch referred to a particular transaction and did not give
a general opinion. He had also to complain of the de-
spatch being quoted, although he had been checked for
doing the same with other despatches which were not
produce&
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said it was a general
rule that no public official had a right to give documents
which became to the knowledge of through his official posi-
tion till they were published.-

Earl RUSSELL said he had not violated the general rule,
as at the time he referred to the papers he announced that
it was the intention to publish them.
PRISON DISCIPLINE.

The Earl of CARNARVO N called the attention of the
house to the state of discipline in the different gaols and
houses of correction. The noble earl said the criminal
population was divided into two classes, namely, those whe
were sentenced to three years penal servitude and over, and
those sentenced to shorter terms of imprisonment. The
Royal Commission would only inquire into the former, the
latter would be altogether overlooked. It was of the ut-
most importance that a Government inquiry into
the subject should be made, especially as in
some instances the old system of association was kept up
in many of the country gaols. The system of taking sta-
tistics was excedingly defective, because they were
always in arrear of the present time; but taking those up
to 1861, he found there was an increase of 13 per cent. in
the committals over those of the preceding year; an increase
of 9 over committals, and an ',increase upon other classes.
There was not the slightest reason to believe that there was
any decrease in the following year, whilst in the present the
alarm caused by the increase of crime had been so great
that numbers of persons' looked upon it as unsafe to walk
in the streets after dark. He thought a great deal of the
evil was broaght about by the kind of punishment
inflicted. Since 1850, when the subject was under the con-
sideration of the House of Commons, the system in the
gaols was admitted to be against hard labour, and an act
stating the limits to which it was applied was passed. The
reality, however, was that in most of the gaols the stan-
dard of hard labour was very far from being reached, and
they would find that in recent cases the minimum of six
hours labour sunk down to three or four. In many large
prisons there was a great deficiency in the means of
carrying out the punishment of hard labour, whilst the
dietary was far too high, meat being given in some form or
other every day of the week. Not content with this the
luxuries of tea,csugar, cocoa, and other articles were pro-
fusely given. In one of the prisons what was called extra
diet was allowed, and this indulgence was given with-
out the slightest rule, as was evidenced by the fact
that while in some the prisoners extra dieted was as 1 to 8,
it others it was as I to 35. The diet given in workhouses
bad been compared with that given in prisons, and he knew
for a fact that in some workhouses in the south meat was
seldom given, and that the diet was much below that of pri-
sons. The work done in workhouses was farmore severe than
in some prisons he could mention, yet in the one case the in
mates of workhouses were perfectly willing to earn their sub-
sistence, while in the other complying with the rules of the
prison was all that was required to secure good and plenti-
ful food. He WiS not an advocate for starvation of crimi-
nals, yet he thought there was a medium between that
and the plentiful manner in which they were treated ; and
if that were only observed,' and offenders were treated in a
manner their offences deserved, they would do much to
bring about a better state of things.
[LEFT SPEABLNG.]

HOUSE OF COMMONS—This Evening.
The SPEAKER took the chair at four o'clock.
NEW MEMBER.
Mr. GORE LANGTON took the oaths and his seat for
West Somers etshire.