OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 13 March 1857)

§ SIR DE LACY EVANS
said, he had seen it stated that the Transit, Sanspareil, and Himalaya steamers were being prepared for the conveyance of reinforcements to China. Now, he believed Gentlemen in that House had had some experience of one of these vessels, the Transit, and he should say nothing about her. But it was also very well known that the Sanspareil was one of this very worst sailers in the navy. With regard to the Himalaya, she, no doubt, was a vessel of great capacity, but it had been stated that her engines were defective. He thought, therefore, that these were scarcely the ships which ought to have been selected for such a purpose.

§ SIR MAURICE BERKELEY
was understood to say, that every care had been taken that human ingenuity could devise to fit out the vessels going to China as efficiently as possible. With regard to the Sanspareil in particular, she had been tried, and was found to be admirably suited for the purpose, as her engines had been much improved, and she was a very good sailer.

§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTON
said, with regard to the ships going to China, he most earnestly hoped they would be in somewhat better order than was the Megæra when she was taken up to convey troops to the Mauritius. And perhaps he might here be allowed to renew a question which he had put some time back to the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for War, namely, whether any compensation would be allowed to the officers who incurred upon that occasion a very great expense and a great loss of property by the unsatisfactory manner in which the Megæra 2305 had put to sea? The 85th did not leave Newcastle until it was reported that the vessel was fit for sea; but when they arrived at Portsmouth she was not even then ready, so that the regiment was detained nearly a week before sailing. But when they did sail, she sprang a leak, and the officers' property was greatly injured in consequence. He would ask, therefore, whether any compensation would be afforded to the officers for their detention at Portsmouth, and the injury to their property?

§ MR. FREDERICK PEEL
If the right hon. Gentleman would renew his question upon a future day, he would be prepared with a categorical answer to it.

MR. STAFFORD
wished to make an explanation, in consequence of what had fallen from the hon. and gallant Member for Calne (Sir W. Williams). He had no doubt that when Miss Nightingale went over the Woolwich Hospital she found everything there in a most satisfactory condition. But was the hon. and gallant Gentleman prepared to say, that in the opinion of medical men the hospital at Woolwich, either as regarded its situation or ventilation, was what it ought to be? That was all that he had implied against Woolwich Hospital, and he had not intended to say a word against the medical officers there.

§ MR. COWAN
said, that the Vote included a salary to the Professor of Medical Surgery in Dublin. That chair had, two years ago, become vacant in Edinburgh; yet two other chairs which had become vacant in the meanwhile, had been filled up. He had heard a report that it was not intended to fill up this chair. He knew that a requisition to this effect, had been sent to the Government; but, considering the great importance of the medical school in Edinburgh, second to none in the world, he trusted that it was not the intention of Government to suppress the chair. Economy would not be an object, the salary was only £100 a year.

§ MR. FREDERICK PEEL
was happy to be able to give a satisfactory answer to the question. The Government had appointed a successor to the late Professor, and the arrangements would be completed in a short time.