strike promptly, to strike effectively.Mr. Western then said, that he would not anticipate objections that might be possibly urged against a more frequent delivery of the gaols; nor would he attempt to point out the means by which it was to be effected, and which he thought was the business of the executive to devise. It might very probably be remarked, that such additional duty would require an augmentation of the number of the judges; that such would be the case, he thought extremely probable. But, if it was necessary, was that an objection? He was of opinion, that the vast increase of business did require an augmentation of the number of the judges. He had no hesitation in saying, that he was also decidedly of opinion that their salaries should be augmented likewise, though the salary had been increased so late as the 49th of the present king, yet it was quite inadequate to the character and duties of the high and important situations which they held. As to the idea of throwing more weight of the business upon the quarter sessions, it was what he certainly did not approve. The sessions had, last year, tried upwards of seven thousand prisoners, out of thirteen thousand. He did not wish to see the magistrates in their sessions take higher classes of offence than they did at present; indeed, at present, he thought they went quite far enough in that respect-four hundred and forty-eight persons were transported by the sessions last year. The burthen of their duties were already, in some places, beyond what the magistrates could well get through; and, if these were to be increased, we should be obliged soon to have pensioned chairmen upon every bench in the country, and which, above all things, he should most deprecate.-He concluded by moving,

tions, it appeared that seventeen only were classed or divided according to law; ninety had only two divisions, merely to separate males from females; fifty-eight had only three; fifty-one, four; nineteen, five, and so on; seventeen only being classed or divided according to the regulations of that statute. In the return it was also stated, that one hundred and ninety-four could not increase the number of their divisions without new buildings, or incurring great expense; others might, with comparatively small expense; and many others were either altering and improving their gaols, or were under directions and orders for that purpose. That same statute gives directions for materials to be found and prisoners set to work; but, in two hundred and seventyfour of the prisons no work at all was done; in sixty-four some work was done. And in some few of those sixty-four a considerable deal had been accomplished. He did not wish to see palaces for prisoners; but the prisons should be airy and healthy, with hard fare and hard labour, and ample means of separating the different characters and shades of guilt. He entreated the House to consider, that if the great work was to be accomplished, to which in fact they were pledged, of improving the gaols of the kingdom, of reforming the present management, and establishing a better discipline, that the measure he proposed would materially aid the accomplishment of their object, by immediately reducing the number of prisoners, for whom accommodation was to be found; and would be essentially useful in various other ways. By diminishing, as much as possible, the duration of imprisonment before trial, the danger of corrupting the innocent, or the young offenders, would be more than proportionally diminished. It was only by the means which time afforded, that the work of corruption and debasement could be accomplished. The first effect of imprisonment might be as salutary as it was painful; but time soon wore away the first impression, and then the effects of example and vicious association began to operate in full force. The mind became paralysed; habits of idleness were easily formed; the character changed altogether; and the unfortunate beings, thus corrupted and debased, were turned loose again upon society, to contaminate and corrupt others. Besides which, the efficacy of the law was lost, by its tardy operation. The hand of justice must (VOL. XL.)

"That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, humbly to represent to his Royal Highness, that this House has taken into its serious consideration_the returns of prisoners tried in the last Lent assizes, in England and Wales, which, in consequence of an address of this House, his Royal Highness was graciously pleased to order to be laid before it; and further to represent to his Royal Highness, that it appears by the said returns, that, of the prisoners tried at the last assizes in England and Wales, exclusive of Middlesex, 405 were in prison before (3 Z)

thinking that government were to blame for not having themselves proposed some specific plan on a subject so pregnant with evils, especially in the Northern counties. He had known a case in one of these counties, in which a man had been imprisoned for eleven months, and eventually the grand jury ignored the bill against him. It appeared that some mistake had arisen in the circumstances which caused the commitment of that person; but although that mistake was soon after discovered, it was impossible to discharge him but in due course of law. This was certainly an extreme case, but other cases of great hardship were constantly occurring. He hoped his hon. friend would persist in his endeavour to give to the people of England what a good police required-that those who committed offences might be speedily brought to justice, and those who were innocent speedily discharged.

Mr. Bathurst said, the hon, gentleman who spoke last had mixed up with the subject of the present motion another which had nothing to do with it, namely, that of the Northern assizes. As the courts of law were at present constituted, it was impossible for the judges to afford to all England a greater number of gaol deliveries than was provided for by two assizes. This could only be effected by some alteration in the number or constitution of our courts of law.

Sir E. Knatchbull said, as this was a subject that required very great consideration, he hoped it would be taken up at some future period. He hoped the hon. member would withdraw his motion; that the attorney-general would also withdraw his amendment; and that government would, in a future session, take into consideration the various acts of parliament on the subject.

Mr. F. Buxton felt that some measure similar to that which was now proposed, was essentially necessary. If the hon. member for Essex should succeed in his object, he would do more to improve the morals of the country than had ever been done by a single individual.

The motion was then negatived.

COLONIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.] Mr. Hume rose to submit a motion to the House for a variety of returns relative to the newly acquired colonies of Ceylon, the Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, Malta, and the Ionian Islands. All the

old colonies, he said, were governed by colonial assemblies; but the newly acquired colonies, amounting in value to a very large proportion of our whole colonies, had this peculiarity attending them, that the government was carried on under the secretary for the colonial department, and that all affairs, however important, were carried on by the colonial governor, who was the only individual entitled to interfere under the secretary for the colonies. The House were not, perhaps, fully aware of the importance of these colonies, of the great revenue of each, and of their great expense to this country. Although the island of Ceylon had long been in the possession of this country, yet he was not aware that up to the present moment, any estimate of the revenue or expenditure of that island was yet in the possession of ministers. From the pecufiar manner in which the accounts respecting the colonies were kept, it was almost impossible for any individual to know what they cost. Large bills were drawn from the colonies on the government here, and these bills were not submitted to the House till a year or two after they were drawn. One thing was so mixed up with another, that it was impossible to know for what the sums for which those bills were drawn were expended. state of things ought not to have continued so long. During the war, when we were in a state of uncertainty, whether these colonies would be retained by us, some justification might have been offered for this system; but in the fifth year of peace, surely it was the duty of that House to see what was the real state of the colonies we had acquired, what was the expense incurred for them by this country, and if found too large, to consider in what way it might be reduced. It might be necessary to state to the House, as one cause of the peculiar interest which he took in this question, that he had himself visited each of these colonies, and that he had, both while there and since, obtained such information as warranted the inquiries which he now called for. By the estimates last presented to the House, it appeared that the total number of troops in our colonies amounted to 30,000 and between 3 and 400. The number of regular troops in Ceylon, the Mauritius, the Cape, Malta, and the Ionian Islands, was 10,240, being onethird of the whole of our military establishment out of England. The pay and

This

clothing alone of this one-third cost 376,100%. without taking into account contingent expenses, the commissariat staff, and other ordinary and extraordinary expenses. The staff of the whole British army was 79,535.; the staff of the new colonies was 25,000l., being one-third of the whole British army. This seemed a very large staff indeed, when it was considered, that not a hostile naval flag waved to the east of the Cape of Good Hope; and that in case of hostilities, from the superior naval means at our command, we could always convey relief to our colonies before they could be endangered by any enemy whatever. In time of war he should be the last man to quarrel with an effective staff establishment; but in time of peace, when we could do so without risking the safety of the colonies, we ought to reduce these enormous staff establishments. Though it was impossible to attain perfect accuracy on this subject, he had been enabled to put down upwards of 900,000l., which ought to be placed to the account of these new colonies. When it was considered that the revenue of Ceylon was 640,456l., the Cape 229,4947., the Mauritius 206,860, Malta 114,4157., the Ionian Islands 120,000l.; making on the whole a revenue of 1,311,225.-when it was considered that this revenue was altogether unknown to this House, though he did not mean to say it was improperly applied, he submitted it as a most important constitutional question for the House, whether the individual who filled the office of colonial secretary, and the individual governors, should continue to have the uncontrolled distribution of upwards of 1,300,000l. a year, and nearly a million more of other expenses connected with it? Whilst in the old colonies there were councils to check and assist the governors, in these new colonies no check whatever existed. It became a question, whether the king in council were to continue to direct, without any local government of a senate, legislature, or council, sums of such an amount? Ceylon, under the Dutch government, paid to Holland a very large surplus income. He had every reason to believe that the Cape paid also a large surplus revenue; and that the Mauritius, after paying its expenses, yielded a surplus revenue. If that was the case under the preceding governments when these colonies were liable to attack from the most powerful naval power, great Britain-if they were

still able to protect themselves, to maintain internal tranquillity, and to guard against sudden attack from withoutsurely it was not too much to expect from his majesty's government, with such superior means always at command, that they should maintain these colonies at least without entailing any charge on this country. He wished to know why the expenses of the war in Ceylon were not laid before the House? On a former occasion, he requested the chancellor of the exchequer to state the nature of the account between the East India company, but he could receive no satisfactory answer. These accounts were balanced generally by two or three millions on each side, but the public ought to be made acquainted with them. It was known that from 3 to 4,000 of the company's troops had been sent from Bengal to Ceylon; those troops must be paid for. In common justice, government ought to relieve the East India company from this expense. Notwithstanding all that had been done at different times, the expenses incurred at Ceylon had been kept from the public eye. Unless a system of government, consistent with the principles of justice, and conciliatory to the inhabitants, was adopted, it would be impossible to keep that colony in our possession, unless at an expense of a most ruinous nature. It would be impossible to derive any benefit from the possession of that island, while an arbitrary system of government was pursued. If this had been done five years ago, an immense expense of blood and treasure would have been saved. If the regular returns were laid on the table, the House would be astonished to see the number of British lives, which had been sacrificed in the course of this war. He did not mean to impute any blame to the governor of that colony, but he condemned the necessity which had given rise to the harsh measures that had been adopted. He was anxious to impress the House with the value of this colony, with the greatness of its produce and the amount of its revenue, if properly directed; and also to point out the saving which by a different policy could be made to this country. A sum of half a million at least could be saved by reducing the military establishments of Ceylon, and those establishments could be reduced without danger to our interests, if the colony were governed on principles of justice and sound policy. He had five motions to make, each of which contained