COLONEL DUNNEsaid, in the absence of the hon. and gallant Member for Antrim (General Upton), he would beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, if, considering the facts detailed in the Petition from the Ayr and Maybole Railway Company alleging the breach of an Agreement to which the Lords of the Treasury were a party, it is intended to lay out any public money on the Harbours of Portpatrick and Dona-ghadee, until the Mail Contract Committee shall have reported on the facts?
§ MR. LAINGsaid, he could only repeat the answer he had given on this subject when the Estimates were under discussion, namely, that a bargain having been entered into by the Government and confirmed by the late Secretary to the Treasury, they could not now postpone acting upon it. The case did not at all come within the scope of the reference to the Mail Contract Committee. The sum to be laid out on those works would not exceed £20,000.