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outdoor for indoor labour, and intermissions of penal diet, he speaks of the Commissioners having shown beyond doubt that in those gaols which were not overcrowded, the sickness was not excessive, and that in the gaols which were overcrowded the excessive sickness only lasted as long as the overcrowding.”

In the years 1868 and 1869, as I have already observed, the mortality in Welikada was much less than it had been in the three years preceding; but the Superintendent accompanied his favourable Report with the warning that, where the numbers in a prison fluctuate so considerably, there should not be a too hopeful anticipation that bach succeeding year should produce results and furnish tables of sickness and deaths corresponding with those under review."

And the very next year was to show how much this warning had been needed, and how little it had availed.

In my circular despatch of the 15th April, 1871, I supplied the Governor with the third series of correspondence on Colonial Prisons presented to Parliament, and I at the same time called his attention to the additional experience which had been obtained, and to the results of Colonial experience as modifying or confirming rules grounded solely or chiefly on English experience, and I quoted Colonial opinions of high authority as showing the separate system to be indispensable, and the fatal consequences to morality of neglecting it.

In another circular despatch of January, 1872, I sent out Forms of Returns to be filled

On the 2nd September, 1872, you with particulars respecting all the prisons. up transmitted the returns for 1871, and I then learnt that in several prisons in Ceylon the space was, a

, as I observed to you in my despatch of the 17th December, 1872, "grievously insufficient." But I was even then unaware that in the prisons of Welikada and Hulfsdorff cells, which were hardly of sufficient size for one prisoner, were made to contain three, four, and five, and at one time even eight and ten; because the returns, as I have said already, represented that in these prisons the separate system was in complete operation.

Your despatch transmitting these returns stated that considerable progress had been made towards placing the gaols of the Island on a proper footing, that you had instructed the Director of Public Works to lose no time in constructing the new gaols that were still required, and in effecting the alterations and additions to existing gaols necessary to carry out in its integrity the system of penal discipline now in force, and that in two years it was hoped that the necessary buildings would be completed, and you believed that then the treatment of criminals throughout the Colony would be uniform and in accordance with correct principles of penal discipline.

When writing this despatch I apprehend that you had not yourself examined the returns, and although, as I have said, you had received Dr. Coghill's letter of 22nd August, 1872 (with the precise contents of which I am not made acquainted), you were probably quite unaware of the facts which were to be brought to light by the inquiries of the Commission.

I have called your attention to the tenor of this correspondence from first to last, because it was only in March, 1872, that you assumed the Government, and I am desirous that you should be aware how repeatedly the prospect has been held out of works in progress, and how often the hopes you now express have been expressed before, and that thus you may be led to understand the feelings with which, after a review of ten years of such hopes and expectations, I must necessarily contemplate the results before us.

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Welikada, which in 1807 was to be forthwith reformed, and to "serve as a "model prison, and be very important as an example," is found in 1873 to be in the state which is described, and the arrangements at Hulfsdorff, the other prison at the seat of Government, are even worse. In ten other gaols the space in cubic feet avatable for each prisoner varies from 120 to 632, five of them containing respectively no more than 300, 269, 270, 151, and 120; and in other gaols the serious defects are found which are particularised in my despatch.

I need hardly say that pending the provision of adequate space, immediate steps must be taken to obviate the occurrence in any of the gaols of such a visitation of sickness and death as has occurred in six out of the last eight years in the prison of Welikada.

A proper penal discipline, highly important as it is in itself, cannot be maintained under circumstances in which it becomes incompatible with the health of the prisoners.

Dr. Charlsley recommends that there should be some relaxation of the penal system of Welikada, which is in accordance with the suggestions of Earl Granville in his despatch of the 29th January, 1869, written in more especial reference to the sickness

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and mortality at Hambantota. In that despatch Lord Granville suggested that when from one cause or another the cubic space falls short of 500 feet for each prisoner, outdoor should be substituted for indoor labour, and the ten days' penal diet in each month should be intermitted; and he proceeded to say that "in Mauritius, where deficiency of space was producing serious evils, one of the remedies adopted was to proclaim a building as a prison to be called the Vagrant Depôt,' to which were committed all mere vagrants and persons imprisoned for desertion and breach of their engagements. The discipline of this prison was not of a severe character. The labour was industrial, and when it was over-crowded, those for whom there was no room were hutted out in the fields. And the place of "hutting out," he added, "was adopted in other Mauritius prisons besides the Vagrant Depôt.”

I have now to repeat Lord Granville's suggestions, and to instruct you generally to adopt in all the prisons such modifications of the penal system as are at present necessary for the health of the prisoners, not to be carried further or continued longer than this necessity demands; and to take immediate steps for carrying into effect at once as far as practicable all the reforms required for the adoption of the principles of management so often prescribed by Her Majesty's Government; including the construc- tion, with the least possible delay, of the required new buildings.

No. 41.

I have, &c. (Signed)

KIMBERLEY.

Governor the Right Hon. W. H. Gregory to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received

(No. 16. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

February 25.)

Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon, January 9, 1874.

I HAVE received your despatch No. 159 of the 2nd July* referring to the report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the causes of the sickness and mortality in Welikada Prison, and reviewing the correspondence which has passed on the general question of gaol accommodation and discipline in this island.

2. I question whether any advantage will be derived by attempting to rebut some of the errors which occur in your Lordship's despatch: as, for instance, the statement that there are 30 cells in use containing but 350 cubic feet-there is no cell in existence with less than 672; but, as such errors must, I fear, arise from the incorrectness of returns fur- nished by the prison officers, I would rather accept the severe strictures which the despatch contains as to some extent merited, and will simply direct your Lordship's attention to the inclosed returns: (1) showing the amount expended in the past two years on improving the gaol accommodation; (2) the rules and regulations I have caused to be prepared for the guidance of the gaol authorities; (3) the rate of mortality among prisoners through- the island during the past year.

3. I trust that this latter return will be sufficient evidence that every effort has been made to improve the sanitary arrangements of the gaols, with, I am glad to add, the most satisfactory results.

4. I propose to defer making any general report until the alterations and additions to the Welikada and Slave Island Prisons are completed, and I feel confident that by March next I shall be able to show that the prison accommodation of this island will enable me to carry out henceforward what I believe to be the proper principles of management for the criminal population of Ceylon.

I have, &c.

(Signed) W. H. GREGORY.

Inclosure 1 in No. 41.

Amount expended by the Public Works Department on gaol improvements and accommodation during 1872 and 1873, 12,5007,

• No. 40.