Mr. Cross, on Thursday, flung another sop to the angry
opponents of local taxation. He brought in a Bill under whioh the Imperial Government will, from 31st March, 1877, take over the management, and therefore the expenses, of all the gaols in England. At present, there are 116 of thoae establishments, many of them absurdly small, and costing in the aggregate 1549,000 a year. He believes that by closing 60 of these prisons, and extending the system of remunerative work to all the remainder, and equalising the cost of maintenance, which now varies from £15 ls. id. in Salford to £150 4s. 2d. in Oak- ham, Government will reduce expenditure to £385,000 a year, with an increasing revenue from prison labour. Moreover, the Secretary of State will be able to enforce a much-needed uni- formity of discipline and punishment. The plan of the Bill appears to be economically sound, and prison diaeipline is cer- tainly not a local affair ; but it should not be forgotten that with our present finance, every relief of this kind to ratepayers is effected at the cost of the payers of income-tax. The centra- lisation of prison management may be followed at no distant date by a centralisation of police management, for which quite as strong a financial case could be made out. Combinations of counties could effect all that will be effected under this Bill, but that idea seems to be beyond our politicians. Has Mr. Crass re- flected that he will, when his Bill has passed, have to discuss every failure in the management of a prison in the House of Commons, with no visiting-justices to whip ?
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