CLOTHING FOR THE GERMAN LEGION. (Hansard, 22 February 1856)

§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSON

said, that in justice to a firm which had been mentioned on the preceding evening as having supplied the defective trousers to the cavalry of the German Legion, concerning which he had put a question to the hon. Gentleman the Clerk of the Ordnance, he must state that he had received from the firm in question (Messrs, Hibbert and Co.) a letter, of which he would read but one passage. That passage was as follows— The name of our firm has been mentioned as the suppliers of the articles. As the charge of inferiority of materials is still unrefuted, we think it right to state that we were not the exclusive contractors for the trousers, and that the number supplied by us, as we are ready to prove, was superior to the received pattern. He believed he was correct in stating that but a small portion of the clothing was supplied by Messrs. Hibbert and Co., the greater part having been made by other firms. One circumstance which ought to be known was, that the pattern for these trousers was bound with a description of leather called Spanish horsehide. The leather used by Messrs. Hibbert and Co. was of that description, but other firms made the straps of an inferior article called sheepskin.