The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-11 00:00:00

lie said separate confinement prevented con-
tarnino4..lon. The convention at Frankfort, which
was a`tended by 80 or 90 persons who had
taken an interest in prison discipline, from
r ail parts of Europe, which would no doubt be in
1 the recollection of the Noble Lord, resulted in a

resolution approving of separate confinement, the
Ministers of Prussia, Poland, and France having fully

assen'ed to the proposition. If the system did not
prevail in the houses of detention great injury to the
morals of the prisoners could not fail to be
the result. The Noble Lord would find this ably

. .
set forth in a book entitled " Prisons and Prisoners."
A house of detention had been established in "NEM: -

sex, in which though the persons confined
were kept in separate confinement, they were allowed
to have free access to their friends and legal advisirs.

The 10th Report of the Inspectors of Prisons, published
in August, 1845, showed that the fears of the Noble
Lord were groundless. It Stated that the prisoners
had good and sufficient food, that they were protected
from contamination or injury from the other
prisoners, that they might obtain the pre-
sence at any time of the warden, the
governor, the surgeon, and the chaplain' that
they might see their friendsfriendsand legal advisers,
and read letters. They were not allowed
to read objectionable books ; but they were
allowed to work if they thought proper, to
have exercise in the open air, and to attend
chapel. Their tempers were not irritated by others
and they concluded. by sa3ing that they bolieiecl
the friends of persons committed for trial would
rather see their relations placed in this confinement
than in any other. lle bore testimony to the excel-
_ _

lence of the motives by which the Noble Lord was
actuated; but, seeing that the subject had
been fully considered by many benevolent
individuals, he earnestly entreated the House
not to consent to the motion, because hs

believed it would be injurious, as it could net
fail to partake of a retrograde character
and to derange all the excellent arrangements for the
improvement of prison discipline that.had been male
during the last few years.—(Cheers.)
1)r. BOWRING recommended his Noble Friend not
to press tha question.
Lord MAIION should be glad to ascertain what was
intended to be done respecting penal punishments ge-
nkTally. The question had last year been left in a mot
unsatisfactory condition.
Sir G. GREY said he should introduce a measure on
the subject of punishments this year, but the wh,,le
question was surrounded by great difficulties and em—
barrassments. The plan indicated by Lord Grey last
year would certainly undergo considerable modifications.
Lord NUGENT replied, and the motion was by
leave withdrawn.
HIGHWAYS.

Mr. OSBORNE asked if any measure was to be
brought in on the subject of highways.
Sir G. GREY said such a measure was in preparation.
PUBLIC HEALTH. _

Viscount MORPETH then rose to move for leave to
bring in a Bill for promoting the public health. His
Lordship said that in rising to move this Bill for tl c
second time, he certainly felt no diminution of the
anxiety and earnestness which attended his first effort,
and ho hoped he might say his last failure on the sub-
ject. Ile did not feel himself called on to enter into the
subject of the proceedings which ended in that e:ef, at.
What then passed, however, had left two feelings upi,er-
most in his mind; one, of his increased responsibility,
that there should be no second failure; the other, that
whilst last time a great deal was said and nothing
done, so this time comparatively little might be said,
and a great deal might be effected. It might be
remembered that in the proceedings last year
two injunctions were given to him—one to set forth
in the Bill all that it was proposed to enact; the other,
to bring in a Bill containing only two or tlys-e clauses.
These injunctions were opposed to each ocher,
and having to choose between them, he had decided
to comply with the first. Aiming at as much concise-
ness and brevity as were attainable with the efficiency
of the measure—discarding many adjuncts which they
would have been glad to have included—they had sought
in the first Bill to lay the basis of an efficient measure
of sanitary reform. Perhaps he could not better state
the objects which such a measure should aim at than by
quoting from the petition of the working classes, pre
sewed last session, in favour of the Health of Towns
Bill. These were the classes, be it remembered, for
whom they had to legislate. If health eluded the rich
man in one place, he might pursue it in another ; but it
the Parliament did not provide health for the poor they
were quite unable to provide it for themselves. The
petitioners he referred to prayed for seven things : for
betn-r water—better sewers—the removal of nuisances--
the improvements of the dwellings of the poor—their
better ventilation—the erection of public baths and
washhouses—and the construction of gymnasia and pub-
lic places of amusement. He would nos proceed to state
what the Bill itself proposed. They abided by their
proposition to form a general board of health, consisting
of five members, of whom two should be paid, and of
whom the president should be personally responsible to
Parliament. He was aware that this proposition would
not meet the views of those who were specially impressed
with the inconvenience of what they styled centralisa-
tion; but he was fully convinced himself that without
some regulating central power, the Act could nevi r
practically be carried out. And he had reason to think
that public opinion coincided with this view, and that
there was a general conviction that when duties we-re
thrown on irresponsible local bodies, they would rarely
be found to fulfil those duties satisfactorily. There-
fore, whilst he should leave the working to local
bodies representing those who were mainly inter-
ested, he
.considered it right that there should be a
general board to provide indispensable preliminaries,
to :;uggest plans, to check abuses, and to exercise
a superintending control. This brought him to state
what the constitution of the local board should be,
and on that point they also adhered to the opinioes ex-
pressed lest year, that these local bodies should be more
or less connected with the town councils of the different
boroughs. Two objections were raised to that—firs',
that the machinery was cumbrous ; and, second, that the
boundaries of boroughs were not well defined. They
prop >sea to meet the first objection by providing that
after a, certain number of householders had applied fur
the operation of the Act, and after the report of cone-
tent inspectors, then the order in Council issued by the
Executive Board should define the number of which the
local board should be composed, and that the town
council should choose that number from among their own
body. With respect to the question of boundary, they
proposed that the same order in Council should prescribe
the number of sanitary officers to act for the outlying
districts, to be chosen from among the guardians of the
poor. Towns and places where no town council existed
would be subject to a similar arrangement. With
regard to the limits of their operations, they proposed
to make no exception in England and Wales with
respect to the operation of the Act ; and hereafter, if
the Bill was found to act well, they would hope to extend
it to Scotland and Ireland. He had said they did net
exclude any part of England and Wales, and thererore
the House would understand that the Bill did not pro-
fessed!), exempt the metropolis.—(Hear, hear.) He did
not wish to mislead the House. They had appointed a
commission specially to report upon the measures re-
quired by the metropolis upon this subject, and he
should hope to bring in a Bill specially applicable to it,
for owing to the great extent of London, its largo popu-
lation, and the number of interests involved, he must
candidly say that he did not contemplate that it would
be easy, until the supplementary Bill was ready, to apply
the provisions of this measure to the metropolis. lie
now came to the question of the duties the local com-
missioners would have to perform. There would of course
be some localities in which certain measures would be
more expedient than others; but the duties which the
local boards would have to conduct would be these:--
They would be bound to have regular meetings, to
appoint an inspector of nuisances, to prepare a map of
their localities, to require house-drains to be made, to
cleanse and water the public streets, to fill np or cover
in ditches, to keep a register of slaughter-houses and
lodging-houses, and to provide sufficient water for
general use. They would have permissive powers to
cover sewers, alter privies, &c., whitewash and purify
houses, provide buildings to be used as slaughter-
houses, alter public buildings improperly built, super-
vise their ventilation, provide public welks, and pur-
chase and maintain waterworks. These objects, of
course, must be carried into effect by means of ratieg.
The rating clauses will bo of the simplest construction,
and would admit of the rates being levied on the districts
specially to be benefited. He did not like to commit him-
self to the question of cost, but it had been estimated
that all the necessary sanitary provisions could be de-
frayed at a rate of not more than 4d. a week per house
He did not mean to include any clause respecting ceme-
teries in the Bill, but it would enact that whenever the
Board of Health found a churchyard over-crowded they
might have power to prohibit its use.—(Hear, beer.)
With regard to the subject of ventilation, that had been
put under the superintendence of a special board, and
consequently, would not be comprised within the limits
of the proposed Bill. Such were the main outlines of
the measure which he proposed to lay before the House;
but be could not conclude without endeavouring to im-
prcss on the House some of the grounds which, in his
opinion, rendered it absolutely imperative that the pre-
sent, or some other equivalent measure, should be
adopted without delay. Amonst those grounds he did not
mean to lay much stress on the cholera. It that dreaded
malady should arrive, the Government had already
adopted all the precautions that could be devised. It
might prove only a temporary visitation, and as such be
met by temporary remedies, and in so tar the Govern-
ment had already done something by reviving the
Cholera Act of 1832, which would admit of the speedy
re-eStablishment of local boards of health. if they should
he required. But what he more immediately sought to
impress on the House was the fact, that they were not
now called upon to provide temporary remedies against
temporary evils, but against abiding evils of a vast cx
tent, evils which were the permanent causes of by far the
levier proportion of noisome ills that infested the popu-
lations of towns and cities, and which exceeded an their
fatal ravages the bloodiest slaughter ever witnessed in
the battle-tield.— (Hear, hear.) Ho was not about to
trouble the lions° with any unnecessary quotations from
those statistical proofs which right-minded men heel
deemed it expedient to bring forward in defence and
illustration of sanitary reform. There might have been
errors in some of those estimates formed by enthusiastic
inquirers, and in the deductions which they made from
them, but even making a liberal allowance for those ex-
aggerations, there remained sufficient to appal, as well
as to route, the House to exertion. One writer in a
medical review thus states his views:—
" The conclusions to which our examination o sani-
tary teats and estimates has led us are the following :