§ MR. BUXTONsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign affairs, Whether the Government will entertain the idea of presenting the Viceroy of Egypt with a Steel Steamer for the Albert Nyanza, as an expression of the interest taken by Her Majesty's Government in the attempt now made by the Viceroy to suppress the Slave Trade?
MR. OTWAY, in reply, said, he presumed that the Question of his hon. Friend referred to the expedition which the Viceroy of Egypt had entrusted to the command of Sir Samuel Baker. The object of that expedition, which was stated to be the suppression of the slave trade, was one in which. Her Majesty's Government could not fail to sympathize, and to which they wished every success, but the Government were in no respect responsible for it. They had been informed that the Viceroy had ordered a small steel steamer to be constructed in this country, for the purposes of the expedition; but he did not think that under the circumstances it would be a fitting; proceeding on the part of the Government to purchase that steamer for presentation, to the Viceroy.