CAPE OF GOOD HOPE—PACKET CONTRACTS.—RESOLUTION. (Hansard, 21 July 1863)

MR. PEEL
said, he had to move that the contract for the conveyance of the Cape of Good Hope mails with the Union Steamship Company be approved.

§ MR. AYRTON
said, that the course taken by the right hon. Gentleman was an inconvenient one, and he hoped it would not be drawn into a precedent. The resolution of the Committee with reference to these contracts was also inconvenient. The House should not be asked to share in the responsibility of the details of mail contracts. They ought to determine whether a certain line of packets should be created, and the Government left to work out the details.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
said, that the Government had adopted the course which seemed best suited to meet these exceptional cases. The first part of the Resolution of the Committee, which recommended contracts to be laid on the table for a month, provided a good arrangement. The Resolution contained a special provision that the House might be called upon for a positive vote of approval within the month. That was, perhaps, the part of the Resolution most open to question, although he thought there was obvious reason in it, and that the arguments in its favour preponderated over those against it. It was manifestly intended to prevent the disadvantage to which parties who had entered into contracts of a very burdensome nature, involving a large outlay of capital, would be subjected if they were left in uncertainty as to the validity of their contracts any longer than was absolutely necessary. He agreed that it was most desirable to avoid throwing the formation of these contracts late in the year, and that they should be framed in sufficient time to lie a full month on the table of the House before the close of the Session. It was far better that they should come into legal force on the sole responsibility of the Executive after that opportunity of rejecting them had been afforded to the House, than that the House should be called on to affirm them by a positive vote. But during the present year it had been found, through no fault of the Government, impracticable to 1202 get the contracts placed on the table until that very advanced period, and they had to choose between the inconvenience of calling on the House for a positive vote, and the inconvenience of leaving the parties in uncertainty. The Government thought it only fair to choose the former alternative, and he believed that no difference of opinion existed in the House in regard to the contracts now in question.