There are others we could mention, but the above are some of the most flagrant instances of overcrowding. The worst case of all appears to be that of the Westminster House of Correction, which, being constructed to contain 224 males and 124 females, is made to contain a daily average of 251 males, and six hundred and fourteen females. The consequences of such a state of things are the prevalence of sickness, and, as discipline cannot be properly maintained, the frequent infliction of punishments for refractory conduct. Thus, the daily average number of female prisoners in all the county and borough prisons in England and Wales, is 3711, and the daily average of female prisoners in the Black Hole of Westminster is 614, or about 16 per cent. of the total daily average. If this prison were tolerably well managed, the number of cases of sickness and of infliction of punishment ought to be proportioned to the daily average number of prisoners; but this is far from being the case, the total number of cases of sickness and punishment in the female wards being as follows: England and Wales In the West. House of Corr... 4,990 or 40 per cent. 3,919 or 45 per 1 In cases of Sickness are here included infirmary cases, cases of slight indisposition, and of insanity. Mr. Redgrave thinks that the infirmary cases and the number of deaths must alone be referred to as the true sanitary test. In our opinion Mr. Redgrave is altogether wrong. A prison may be very unhealthy, and yet the sickness induced may not be of a grave nature, or sickness unto death. But "slight indisposition" is exactly what might be expected to prevail in an overcrowded prison. The rate of sickness and punishments is thus shown to be nearly three times higher than the proportion of the daily averages would lead one to expect. The number of officers of all ranks employed in the prisons in the year 1859, was males 1944, females 455, being at the rate of one officer to every 6.9 prisoners. In 1858 the numbers were 1953 males, and 452 females, being at the rate of one officer to every 7.8 prisoners. But "it would not be practicable to adapt the number of officers from time to time to the fluctuating number of the prisoners under their charge, and the falling off in the numbers of prisoners last year has consequently raised the proportion of officers." The prison expenses are classed under three heads: Under the first head are comprised what are termed "extraordinary charges," for repayment of borrowed money and payment of interest, and of the expenses of new buildings, additions, and alterations. These extraordinary charges amounted in 1859 to £77,718 9: 2, and in 1858 to £118,819: 12: 2. The average charge for each prisoner per annum was : The average cost therefore, last year, exceeded that in 1858; but it must be remembered that the number of committals was less last year than in the previous year, and that the expenses under the first two heads could not be much affected by the decrease in the committals. Moreover, the average expenses under the third head depend more upon the price of food than the number of prisoners. But the ordinary average charges (omitting the extraordinary charges) per annum for each prisoner, vary very greatly in the different prisons. : In the county prisons, for instance, the average charge varied in 1859 from £100: 3: 8 in the Oakham county gaol, and £60 9 4 in the Lincoln county gaol, to £16: 19: 9 in the Durham county gaol, and £16: 18: 4 in the Salford county House of Correction; and in 1858 from £77: 3: 0 and £56: 19: 10 in the Oakham and Lincoln gaols, to £16:1:7 and £15: 5:10 in the Durham and Salford prisons. And in the borough prisons, the average charge for each prisoner varied in 1859 from £81: 17: 11, £60:7:11, and £52: 12: 0, in the Tiverton, Ripon, and Bath prisons, to £15: 17: 1 and £15:5:1 in the Liverpool and Kingston-upon-Hull gaols, and £14:4:4 in the Halifax county court debtors' gaol; and in 1858 the variation was equally great. This difference in the expenditure is of course partly owing to the difference in the size of the prisons and the numbers of prisoners, such average being necessarily high in small prisons, such as those of Oakham, Tiverton, and Ripon, where the daily average number of prisoners in 1859 was only 7, 2, and 5; but the difference in expenditure cannot always be so accounted for, and probably a low daily average charge may in many cases be as much attributed to good management, and careful and continuous supervision, as to any other cause. The expenses of the county and borough prisons are charged upon local funds; but since 1846 a portion, amounting to between one-fourth and one-fifth of the whole expense, is repaid to the counties and boroughs by an annual parliamentary grant. The expenses of the last two years have been defrayed as follows: Under the foregoing head of prison receipts are included the profit of prisoners' labour, vagrants' money applied to their maintenance, and other small contingent receipts; and the sums paid out of the public revenue are in respect of a proportion of the charge for convicted prisoners, and for payments for convicts under contracts in local prisons; for removal of convicts; and for revenue and military prisoners. The returns of the condition and expenditure of the convict prisons are made for the year ending on the 29th September. These prisons "are appropriated exclusively for convicts sentenced, under the Acts of 1853 and 1857, to periods of penal servitude," varying from three years to life. They have been substituted for the hulks, which they have now entirely superseded. They comprise the Pentonville and Millbank prisons, for male and female prisoners undergoing the first stage of discipline in separate confinement; the Portland, Portsmouth, and Chatham prisons, for male prisoners undergoing the second stage of discipline and industrial training on public works; the Dartmoor prison, for male invalid prisoners, capable only of light agricultural labour; the Lewes invalid establishment, now temporarily used for invalid male prisoners, and to be given up when the invalid prisons now being built at Woking have been completed; the Packhurst Reformatory, Isle of Wight, for convicted boys, employed in farm labour and manufacture; the Brixton prison, for females under the second stage of discipline; and the Fulham Refuge, for female convicts under instruction, and employed in laundry and other domestic work. The number and disposal of the convicts in the years 1859 and 1858, are given below: The number remaining in prison at the end of the year 1859, exceeds that at the end of the preceding year; but the excess is accounted for by the lesser number of persons removed to the colonies. The daily average, however, shows a decrease; and the number of convicts, therefore, must have increased towards the end of the year. The only penal colony to which convicts are now sent is Western Australia. At Bermuda and Gibraltar the convicts are employed on the public works, and, on the termination of their sentences, are brought back to this country. The numbers of convicts thus disposed of during the last three years, were :— On the sudden abolition of the punishment of transportation, it was found necessary, in order somewhat to clear our convict prisons of the vast numbers who otherwise would have overcrowd |