§ MR. WAKLEYwished to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Secretary at War what steps had been taken to investigate the merits of the knapsack and girdle invented by Mr. Berington, according to the promise which the right hon. Gentleman would remember he had given in the debate on the Army estimates last Session?
§ MR. F. MAULErecollected that the subject had been brought under the consideration of the House when the Army estimates were brought in last year; but he did not recollect that he had said anything which could induce the hon. Gentleman to suppose that he would subject the knapsack to any inquiry. He himself, however, had since that debate looked at the knapsack, and he had no hesitation in saying that he did not think it deserved 952 the encomiums which had been passed upon it. It was inconvenient, inasmuch as before you could get anything out of the bottom it was necessary to turn the contents on the ground; it was complicated in its details; it was thirteen ounces heavier than the knapsack at present in use, and its price was 28s., the price of the present knapsack being only 14s., which, as the soldier paid the price in case of losing his knapsack, was to him a matter of no slight importance. He had therefore thought it his duty not to recommend the use of Berington's knapsack.