It seems matter of regret, that so little advantage has resulted from the inquiries into the state of Scottish gaols, which were made in Parliament in the years 1818 and 1819, followed by the act 59 Geo. III. c. 61, which enabled counties to give aid to burghs in enlarging and improving their prisons; and under such circumstances it appears to your Committee, that it is no longer a matter of choice but of necessity, that a speedy and effectual remedy should be applied to an evil of such magnitude.

Impressed with the belief that no prison can be properly constructed or regulated unless it be of considerable size, it has occurred to your Committee, as a matter meriting much attention, whether it would not be expedient that gaols should be erected in certain districts of Scotland, calculated for the custody of prisoners under criminal warrants, when subjected to imprisonment of some duration. As the assizes are not held in every county in Scotland, but solely at what are termed circuit towns, (to which towns, prisoners, not only from the counties in which such towns are situated, but from those of several adjoining counties, are brought for trial,) it is sufficiently apparent that such circuit towns would naturally form the most proper sites for these prisons; and that the counties from whence prisoners are so brought for trial, would constitute the districts for whose prisoners such gaols would respectively afford accommodation.

While your Committee have thought it their duty to bring this point into notice, they find it impossible, at this advanced period of the session of Parliament, to furnish a full and satisfactory report on the important and difficult matters referred to their consideration, especially as touching the sources from which the necessary means for erecting proper prisons, and for the alimenting of prisoners under

criminal warrants, subsequent to conviction, ought to be derived. Your Committee have, therefore, deemed it the most advisable course to report the evidence taken by them to the House, accompanied by the humble expression of their opinion, that in the next session of Parliament these important subjects ought again to be referred to a Committee, so that remedies best suited to the evils may, after mature consideration, be suggested, and forthwith receive effect.

With the view of obtaining correct evidence of the amount of the funds belonging to royal burghs, your Committee thought it the most expedient course to call for copies of those accounts of each burgh, which had been made up for the year ending in October 1825, in terms of the act 3 Geo. IV. c. 91, entitled, "An Act for regulating the mode of accounting for the common good and revenues of the royal burghs of Scotland;" such accounts were in consequence obtained; but they proved to be so volu minous, that your Committee have not deemed it advisable to lay them before the House, but have caused an abstract made from these accounts to form part of the appendix to this report.

This report is followed by an Appendix, containing details of the state of the various prisons of Scotland.

CHURCHES.

Second REPORT of the Commissioners appointed by Virtue of an Act of Parliament, passed in the fourth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Fourth, entitled," An Act for building additional Places of Worship in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland."-COMMONS.]

THE proceedings of the Commis. sioners, from August 1823 to June

1825, were fully detailed in their first report, which contained a list of those places, thirty-one in number, to each of which a church had been assigned, and (with one exception) a minister and manse; also a separate list of ten places, to which ministers and manses only had been provisionally offered, under the 28th section of the amended act of 1824.

The first of these lists was liable to little alterations; the remote situation of Quarff, on the mainland of Shetland, had, indeed, precluded accurate knowledge of the place until last autumn, when a surveyor was dispatched to the Shetland islands at a large expense, which has produced little more than negative results; neither Quarff nor the places where the ministers and manses were offered, appearing to be decidedly eligible for the intended purpose; but it is hoped that the surveyor has acquired such knowledge as may become useful hereafter, in judging of local information, which must be now sought from the presbytery and civil authorities.

The surveyor took this opportunity to revisit the Orkney islands, where ministers and manses have been assigned to Deerness and North Ronaldsay respectively, on condition that the existing churches shall be properly repaired and fitted for divine service, and security given to uphold them in future.

Of the other places to which ministers and manses have been thus of fered, four or five apparently will fail of obtaining the expected benefit, and thereby afford an opportunity of transferring the offers to other appli

cants.

The Commissioners have seen occasion to revise their proceedings with regard to the extensive parish of Gairloch, the applications from which appear to have been unsuccessful, from circumstances which merit in

dulgence; so that one church will be placed in that parish, when the best situation for it shall have been ascertained, the original application having extended to no less than three additional churches.

The buildings (of which a sketch was given in the report of June last) have undergone no material alteration, but much discussion has arisen concerning the estimates and specifications; and from this cause chiefly the contractors are not so forward in their work as was anticipated. At present there is reason to expect that four churches, with the respective manses, will be completed before the end of the present year. Of these, Tomantoul and Kinloch Luichart will be finished in July; Croisk, (improperly called Brae, in the list of Churches,) and Plockton in Lochalsh, in September or October next.

Several of the applicants express an opinion, that fifteen hundred pounds is a scanty allowance for completing a church, a manse, and its appur tenances; but as this limit is imposed by the Highland church act, the Commissioners cannot go beyond it; nor have they been able to satisfy some of the applicants, who complain that their churches are not early on the list for completion; but the general progress of the whole work has been the sole object regarded in distributing the churches and manses among the several contractors, who could scarcely have commenced operations on a single church or manse at the present moment, had they waited for the actual signature of their respective contracts, several minute details not having been settled till very recently, and this without imputation of undue delay in any of the parties concerned.

The Commissioners annex hereunto the annual account of charges and expenses payable by the Treasury,