§ VISCOUNT DUNKELLINsaid, he wished to inquire of the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he had any objection to lay on the table of the House a copy of the instructions given to the Commissioners appointed last October, by the Irish Government, to visit and inspect the port and harbour of Galway; and a copy of the Report presented by the Commissioners on the condition and wants of the harbour; and to state what steps, if any Her Majesty's Government had taken, or proposed to take, in consequence thereof?
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, that there was not the slightest objection to lay the Report to which the noble Lord had referred on the table of the House. In point of strictness, the inquiry was not carried on by a Commission. He received an application from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, expressing a wish that some inquiry should be made with regard to the capabilities of the port and harbour of Galway as a harbour of refuge and a port for the packet service. In consequence of that application he appointed two experienced officers of the Admiralty (Captain Washington and Captain Vetch) to make an inquiry. The Government of Ireland associated with those gentlemen an experienced Irish engineer (Mr. Gibbon), and those three gentlemen made an investigation as to the capability of the port of Galway, both as a packet station and a harbour of refuge. As he had stated, he had no objection to lay their Report on the table, but he might state that it was certainly very much in favour of the adoption of the port for those purposes. If he recollected rightly, it was stated that for an expenditure of a few thousand pounds Galway Bay might be rendered very valuable both as a harbour of refuge and a packet station. The latter part of the question did not strictly belong to the department with which he had the honour of being connected. It was rather one for the Treasury than for the Admiralty; but he might state that the Government had 109 been in communication both with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Postmaster General, but no final decision had yet been made.
§ MR. H. HERBERTsaid, he wished to ask whether the gentlemen referred to were instructed to inquire into the capabilities of any other port in Ireland besides that of Galway?
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONsaid, that the communication which he had received from the Irish Government referred solely to Galway, and the inquiry had been confined to that port.