§ LORD WILLIAM GRAHAMsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for War, Whether he can afford any explanation of the Statement he made that no plan for the Defence of Portsmouth, except the Duke of Richmond's, existed at the time the Government land at Portsmouth was sold for £8,000, seeing that in the Appendix to the Report of the Defence Commission it is stated that a Committee which sat on this subject in 1804 recommended a plan for the Defence of Portsmouth, at 762 an expense of £712,000, which included four batteries at Stokes Bay?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, he was not certain of the exact words which he had used, but what he had intended to convey was that no plan which had been officially adopted existed for the defence of Portsmouth. It was quite true that plans had been submitted, but, as they had not received adoption, and were not to be acted upon, there was no reason why the land should be retained in the hands of the Government.