§ SIR DE LACY EVANSsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether it be the fact that only 250 of the approved new Rifled Cannon were at present ordered or expected to be constructed within the current year; and if so, whether this arrangement is adequate to the present wants of the Army and Navy; and whether it would be practicable to afford Sir William Armstrong greater proportional means of construction?
GENERAL PEELsaid, he would take that opportunity of answering some Questions which had been put in the course of the preceding debate. The papers relating to Sir Charles Trevelyan's abolition of army purchase scheme, moved for on the 15th and 17th ult., would he laid on the table of the House in a few days. He had also been asked by the hon. and gallant Member for Westminster (Sir De Lacy Evans) whether it was the fact that only 250 of the approved new rifled cannon were at present ordered or expected to be constructed within the current year. He was not quite sure whether it was very prudent or politic to state the exact number of guns constructing. He had stated, on a former occasion, that the new artillery would be supplied as quickly as it could possibly be made, and also that the manufacture would be proceeded with at Woolwich, as well as at Sir William Armstrong's establishment at Newcastle. The hon. and gallant Member was mistaken in supposing that any grant had been given to Sir William Armstrong. All that had been done by the Government was this, to give a guarantee that whatever was laid out by Sir William in machinery or additional buildings fur the purpose of executing the Government order, should be refunded to him in event of the order being withdrawn, the amount to be ascertained by arbitration afterwards.