ABSTRACT
The Marquis of Lansdowne, in pursuance of the notice he had given, rose to call the attention of their Lordships to the state of prisons in the United Kingdom; a subject important at all times, and requiring the constant supervision and active interference of the legislature, but peculiarly so at present, from circumstances to which, however painful, it was necessary to advert. From the information contained in papers now upon their Lordships’ table, it would appear that the number of crimes had increased to an extent unprecedented in this or perhaps any other country. In other countries, and under other governments, it might be attempted to conceal such facts, but it was happily the policy of this to lay open every deficiency and every disorder which might arise, by which its prosperity or its happiness could be affected, and in that very publicity to seek the means of supplying or correcting them.
