§ SIR C. NAPIER, pursuant to notice, asked whether the Admiralty had issued an order relative to suspending the construction of 72-gun ships, and whether that order had been subsequently withdrawn, and another made for continuing the building of them?
§ MR. WARDsaid, that in 1844 an order was issued to suspend the construction of the Aboukir, the Exmouth, and the Princess Royal: the works were not resumed in 1845 and 1846; but in the programme of 1846–7 those ships were included, and it was directed that the Aboukir should be advanced to a certain stage of completion. No other order was given, and the works proceeded until they were suspended by the Admiralty order of March, 1847. They were now again proceeding.