STATE OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. (Hansard, 15 April 1847)

§ MR. HUME
then rose to move for— A Copy of the Instructions from the Board of Admiralty to the Committee of Naval Construction, appointed to inquire into the state of Naval Architecture; and Copies of the several Reports which that Committee have made to the Board of Admiralty on the state of the Ships of Her Majesty's Fleet; Also Copies of all Orders issued by the Committee of Construction, or by the Board of Admiralty, in consequence of the Reports of that Committee, respecting the alteration of those ships laid down, or in progress of building, or built, according to the lines or plans of Sir W. Symons, the Surveyor of Her Majesty's Navy, or any other constructor. He said he had come down to the House prepared to expose the three late Boards of Admiralty; but, as he found that his hon. Friend the present Secretary to the Admiralty was not prepared to enter into the whole of the question which he wished to submit to the House, he would postpone it to another day. That the question was a most important one would at once appear when he stated that it was his intention to prove that a very large portion of the 20,000,000l., which had been voted during the time that the present Surveyor of the Navy had been in office, had literally been wasted. He did not blame the Surveyor for this; he blamed the system which produced such results. With respect to his present Motion, he understood that a part of the returns he wanted would not be refused. He would therefore content himself at present with that portion to which there was no objection, and leave the discussion of the whole question till that day fortnight, when he would charge the Admi- 849 ralty broadly with mismanagement of the public funds, and ask for a Committee of Inquiry, in order to have the facts fairly and properly before them.

§ MR. WARD
, said that nothing could be fairer than the course which his hon. Friend had taken on this occasion; but certainly he was not till now aware of the very large scope which his hon. Friend's Motion embraced. There was a portion of the papers which he could readily agree to produce, namely, a copy of the instructions from the Board of Admiralty to the Committee of Naval Construction appointed to inquire into the state of naval architecture; but he could prove to his hon. Friend, from the very words of his own Motion, that the other portion of papers called for by him could not with any propriety be given. The reports which the Committee from time to time made to the Board of Admiralty were confidential reports, the Committee being considered the confidential advisers of the board. It was admitted that it was expedient to adopt greater precaution than had hitherto been observed, before any plan was finally submitted to the Board of Admiralty for the construction of new ships; and, with that view, the Committee of Reference, or Construction (it had been named both ways), was instituted; to which Committee all plans were to be submitted, corresponding with those submitted by the board to the Surveyor of the Navy, in order to arrive at something like a better and clearer authorization of such plans; and a more satisfactory evidence that they were founded upon sound principles of naval architecture. It might to some extent prove the case of his hon. Friend, which he was anxious to lay before the House, to furnish him with the instructions to the Committee of Naval Construction; and he would, therefore, lay a copy of the instructions before the House to-morrow. When he suggested to his hon. Friend to delay his Motion for the remainder of the papers, it was because he believed his hon. Friend would really require more before he could so arrange the matter as to make it answer the object he was desirous to obtain. He could truly say that not for the smallest part of those delinquencies to which his hon. Friend had alluded, whether they were large or small, were the present Board of Admiralty in any way responsible. He would at once tell his hon. Friend what had been done by the present Board of Admiralty in consequence of the reports of the Committee of Construction. Those 850 reports had reference to ships that were constructed upon the model of the Albion class, about which so much criticism had been expended, and opinion was so much divided. It was not thought safe to proceed to the full extent, of the plans originally laid down without a fuller investigation of the capabilities of that class of vessels; and the board, finding upon inquiry, that there had been expended on two vessels of the Albion class, the Aboukir and the Exmouth, the sum of 40,000l., they considered it expedient that those two ships should be proceeded with. With respect to the Princess Royal, that vessel was to be altered according to a plan which had been sanctioned by the board, after after having received the reports of the Committee of Construction and the Surveyor. With regard to three other vessels, the Board of Admiralty had suspended all proceedings until they should receive a report from the Committe of Construction and from the Surveyor. Each of these ships was to be constructed upon plans devised by three different builders. He hoped that when his hon. Friend should bring forward his Motion, there would be a fuller attendance of hon. Members who had at any time or who now belonged to the Board of Admiralty; and that, by the discussion which might take place, the House itself would be able to arrive at something like a satisfactory opinion upon the whole question.

MR. WILLIAMS
considered that upon a matter of so much public importance, the reports of the Committee of Construction ought not to be considered confidential. It was well known to the country at large that a vast waste of money took place by mismanagement; and the House ought not therefore to have withheld from it such information as would throw a light upon the subject. He hoped the Secretary for the Admiralty would reconsider the policy on the part of the Board in refusing to produce these reports.

§ MR. WARD
said, that the only part of the Motion which he at present was authorized to assent to was the giving a copy of the instructions to the Committee appointed to inquire into the state of naval architecture. He believed he should be able to give satisfactory reasons why the confidential reports, which entered minutely into the defects of the qualities of the ships, and various other particulars necessary to be made known to the board, should not be laid before the public and the world. 851 But he wished to reserve the whole question for a subsequent discussion.

§ MR. WAKLEY
observed that his hon. Friend had asked for several papers, and only a portion of them was granted, and that the papers which would give practical information were withheld.

§ MR. HUME
explained to his hon. Friend that the first portion of his Motion the Secretary of the Admiralty had no objection to assent to, but that he was not prepared on the present occasion to produce the rest. He (Mr. Hume) was not pressing for the other papers, but had only been telling his hon. Friend (Mr. Ward) the grounds on which he should proceed when he again called for those papers. And he now felt that he should be acting unfairly towards his hon. Friend if he did not inform him that he (Mr. Hume) should not consider it any answer to be told that the papers were regarded as confidential; for he could not consider any papers confidential that involved the expenditure of a great many millions of the public money. His object in obtaining these papers was not only to show what the evils were that had been done in the past, but the way in which some board might be established calculated to prevent similar evils in the future.