§ MR. PAPILLONsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, how 275 soon the New Barracks at Colchester are likely to be commenced, and within what period he hopes to have them completed; whether he intends to put in order and arm the Twenty-one Towers between St. Osyth's Point and Aldborough, not one of which is at present armed; and, generally, what steps he proposes to take for the purpose of rendering more efficient the armament and defences of that part of the East Coast?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, that the greater portion of the money taken this year for the erection of barracks at Colchester would be absorbed in the purchase of land. The barracks would, however be commenced in the course of the present financial year, and he hoped that in about eighteen months from their commencement they would be in a habitable state. As regarded the other question, there was in the Estimates a sum for the repair of Harwich Harbour, and the other defences on the coast were being gradually put into repair. Of course, the Government did not undertake to erect fortresses all round England, so as to prevent the possibility of an attack on any part of the coast.