LANCASTER SHOT MANUFACTORY. (Hansard, 19 June 1855)

CAPTAIN LEICESTER VERNON
said, he would now beg, pursuant to notice, to move for a copy of the Report of Major General Hardinge, Assistant Inspector General of Fortifications, on the building erected for the Lancaster shot manufactory at Woolwich, and the Report on that building by Sir Charles Fox. In bringing forward the Motion, he might perhaps be permitted to say a few words in reference to it, as the question involved, not only the interests of the country, but those of the corps of Royal Engineers, to which he had the honour to belong. On a previous occasion he had taken the opportunity of asking the hon. Gentleman the Clerk of the Ordnance whether the manufactory for making shot and shell had been erected by the firm of Fox and Henderson without the supervision of the Royal Engineers; if so, why such a step had been taken; whether the work executed had been to the entire satisfaction of the Board of Ordnance; and whether it had been examined by an officer of Engineers? The reply that he had received was to the effect that Colonel Foster, commanding the Royal Engineers at Woolwich, had signified that the work was not going on satisfactorily. Thereupon Messrs. Fox and Henderson were communicated with, and they entered into a guarantee which barred all future interference. However, it appeared the work was still going on unsatisfactorily, and Major General Hardinge was appointed to report upon it. That Report was also unsatisfactory, and was communicated to Sir Charles Fox, who requested a friend of his own to go and inspect the work on his behalf. Well, the 2247 report of that gentleman was immensely satisfactory; and he wound up by saying that he had been surprised to find so much done and so well done in so short a time. Now, it appeared to him (Captain Vernon) that that report and the Report of Major General Hardinge were completely at issue, and he certainly did not think that was a position in which to leave a Gentleman occupying the high and responsible post of Major General Hardinge. It appeared that the cost of the building was estimated at 25,000l., a sum of no small importance in such times as the present. But it was not so much upon the amount of money involved as upon the principle that he thought the question mainly hinged. For it involved a new principle of working contracts irrespective of departmental supervision, which, after all, was the only protection to the public and the nation, and was introduced by the Ordnance, which had more to do with contracts than any other department under the Crown. What he desired to know was, why the firm of Fox and Henderson had been relieved of all supervision; was it because they were large contractors? Now, the only difference he saw between large and small contractors was, that the former stood in for a greater share of the public money, but on that account, therefore, ought to be the more narrowly watched. Or was it through courtesy? For if so, he should be glad to know why an equal amount of courtesy was not shown to the corps of Royal Engineers, whose work at Aldershot had been inspected by a civilian expressly sent down for the purpose. However, that corps was now about to be placed under the Horse Guards, and they were glad of it, for they believed they would be the gainers by it. He had had a good deal of experience of Government contracts during the twenty-four years he had served as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers—an instance of the admirable advantages attendant upon a service where promotion went exclusively by seniority—but his experience had taught him that those contracts were best executed which were most narrowly watched. What did the public know of contractors? They had contract sheepskin coats, which the soldiers could not get on. They had contract ammunition boots, not worth wearing. They had contract trenching tools, which would not break ground. They were told last night that attempts had been made to throw the blame rather on the men than the tools; 2248 and it had been said of the troops, what should weavers and cobblers know about tools? He appealed to Gentlemen on that side of the House whether the agricultural and not the mechanical classes furnished the army with men, and an agricultural labourer was complete master of the spade before ever he saw a firelock. He was born to the billhook, and afterwards educated to the bayonet. It was to be hoped, therefore, they would hear no more of attempts to vindicate execrable tools at the expense of good soldiers. We had heard, also, of hay being purchased that was not particularly good; also of preserved meats, the condition of which, on being opened, raised the question whether they were poisonous or pestilential—perhaps they were both. It was not his business to eulogise the Board of Royal Engineers, but he saw the other day a letter from a French officer in the army before Sebastopol to a brother officer in Paris, from which he would read the following extract— You ask my opinion of the English army now acting with us in the Crimea. Well, I will begin with the Royal Engineers, a corps which, from what I have seen of it at work, I think could not be excelled, and could seldom be equalled, in any part of the world. The education of the officers, the training and energy of the men, are fully equal to our qualifications. As to the courage of the troops, I need not say that they are like the rest of the British soldiers, brave almost to a fault. If ever there were a corps of which the British nation ought to be proud, it is that of the Royal Engineers. He would remind the House that the Government had taken from that corps men to fill the most important situations as Governors of the colonies and Secretaries to Ireland, and to discharge various other important and responsible duties. Those officers could not have been selected by interest, for as a corps the Engineers possessed much less interest than any other branch of the service. Neither were the officers selected for those situations of high rank. They were generally of the rank of captain or lieutenant. The Governor of New South Wales, for example, was a captain; the Governor of Van Diemen's Land was a lieutenant; the Governor of St. Lucia was a lieutenant; and a former Under Secretary for Ireland was a lieutenant. As most of those distinguished individuals were alive he would not say anything of them. He would merely refer to one of the illustrious dead, Mr. Drummond, who was Under Secretary for Ireland, and to whose honour a statue was 2249 about to be erected in Ireland. That Gentleman was a lieutenant of Engineers, and was famous as a mathematician and as a chemist. He was the discoverer of what was now well known as the "Drummond Light," and the author of a sentiment which startled all Ireland by its beautiful simplicity and truth—namely, "property has its duties as well as its rights." Captain Owen, another officer of the Royal Engineers, was the man who, aided by two others, stormed the rifle pits before Sebastopol the other day at tremendous risk. His two brother officers were killed, and though he himself escaped with life, he was severely maimed. This was the corps whose skill and knowledge in this particular instance was set aside in favour of a contractor's guarantee, whether to the advantage or disadvantage of the public would shortly appear if the papers which he asked for were produced.

§ MR. I. BUTT
said, he had given notice of an Amendment to the Motion of the hon. and gallant Member, and if the hon. Gentleman the Clerk of the Ordnance would consent to this addition he would offer no objection whatever to the returns. He asked for this addition in justice to the gentlemen alluded to by the hon. and gallant Member—he meant Sir Charles Fox and Mr. Henderson. If he thought that his hon. and gallant Friend would have gone at such length on the subject of the erection of this building, he could have referred to certain documents which would have clearly explained the nature of the entire matter. All he asked now was that in justice to those gentlemen, if the report of Major General Hardinge be ordered to be laid before the House, it be accompanied by the reply of Sir Charles Fox to that report, and also the subsequent report of Mr. John Anderson, Inspector of Machinery to the Board of Ordnance, in relation to the work in question. The firm of which Sir Charles Fox was the principal member were called upon to erect a manufactory in a space of time unprecedentedly short. They 2250 considered it necessary, if they were to erect the building in so short a time, that they should be left to carry out their own plans without any interference by the Engineer department. Now that was the grievance of which the hon. and gallant Member complained. It did not, however, appear to him (Mr. I. Butt) to be an unreasonable demand on the part of the firm. If the Board of Ordnance asked them to erect a building within the space of one month, which under ordinary circumstances would take four or five months to erect, they might reasonably say they would undertake the task, but that there should be no interference with them of any kind until the building was completed. Now, those were the real facts of the case. It was quite true that Major General Hardinge subsequently had seen the work; he knew nothing of the peculiar circumstances under which the contract was entered into; and he made his report as if the work was to be erected at the ordinary time and under ordinary circumstances. The Board of Ordnance then sent an inspector to inspect the work with a view to the peculiar circumstances of the contract entered into. He, therefore, begged leave to move as an Amendment, that the reply of Sir Charles Fox and the report of Mr. John Anderson be added to the Motion.

§ MR. MONSELL
said, he had no objection to lay upon the table of the House the correspondence referred to in the Motion of the hon. and gallant Member for Chatham (Captain L. Vernon), and the Amendment of the hon. and learned Member for Youghal (Mr. I. Butt). The Board of Ordnance had no intention whatever of casting any slight upon the corps of Royal Engineers in the course which had been taken with respect to the new Lancaster shell manufactory. The facts were that Colonel Foster was called upon to prepare, in conjunction with Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., a plan for the erection of the Lancaster Foundry. Some days after the Lancaster Foundry had been commenced, Colonel Foster came to him (Mr. Monsell), 2251 and said that from the lightness of the structure, which was being erected, he could not be answerable for its safety. Upon the other hand he said this was a building which required to be completed with the least possible delay, and that Messrs. Fox and Henderson had stated that they could not complete it within the stipulated time unless the work was executed in the way in which they had arranged to execute it. He (Mr. Monsell) stated that some difficulties would arise under these circumstances, and he finally suggested that Messrs. Fox and Henderson should be allowed to complete the work upon their giving a guarantee that the building would stand for twelve months. Colonel Foster said that he thought a guarantee for six months would be quite long enough, for considering the heavy Nasmyth hammers which would be employed in it, the whole building would certainly tumble down within a less period than that. He considered that the arrangement made was a perfectly satisfactory one; and he thought the House would be of the same opinion when they saw the correspondence which would be produced on the subject.

COLONEL DUNNE
said, he thought after the conversation which had just taken place, that the House would not be surprised at the disasters which had befallen our army at the commencement of the war. The fact now disclosed was, that the hon. Gentleman had taken upon himself the conduct of matters with which he was wholly unacquainted, instead of leaving them to the direction of the corps of Royal Engineers. The Board of Ordnance in this matter merited severe censure. Many of the disasters in the Crimea had been occasioned by the same improper interference, and he warned the hon. Gentleman that if he persevered in this course the army would have no confidence whatever in his conduct of this department.