COMMITTEE. ADJOURNED DEBATE. (Hansard, 14 July 1864)

§ COLONEL SYKES
objected to proceeding at so late an hour (twenty minutes past twelve) with a Resolution which would involve an expenditure of £650,000.

§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE
hoped at this period of the Session the Government would meet with some indulgence, and be allowed to proceed with the business in hand.

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON
trusted the Committee would allow this stage of the measure to be taken. The object of the Resolution was to obtain leave to continue works the principle of which had been already sanctioned by the House. There would be several opportunities hereafter for discussing the nature of the works more fully. If the Committee would allow him, he would state what was the financial position of the fortification scheme. There had been expended up to the 1st of March of this year, £2,854,000, and up to the end of July there would be an additional outlay of some £300,000, making a total of £3,154,000. The total sum voted last year was £3,850,000, therefore they would have a balance in hand of nearly £700,000. That sum, however, would be available only for the particular works for which the money had been voted, and it was necessary, therefore, to ask for £650,000 more. He should be quite willing to answer any questions that might be asked, but he submitted that on the whole the more convenient course would be to defer particulars until they should have the Bill before them.

§ COLONEL SYKES
hoped the House would get further opportunities of discussing this matter.

§ MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD
inquired whether the money now asked for was to complete works already begun or for the commencement of new works?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON
said, that no new works as to the principle of which the House had not already pronounced would be undertaken. The House had already had the schedule of the works three times before it. It would be competent for any hon. Member, when the schedule of the Bill was before the House, to move that a particular work should not be continued.

§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE
trusted that some of the money would be applied to the completion of the Spithead forts. Recent experiments had proved how necessary such works were for the defence of the country.

§ MR. ANGERSTEIN
inquired what the intentions of the Government were with regard to the Central Arsenal?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON
replied that the original scheme contemplated the purchase of a site for a Central Arsenal the intentions of the Government on the subject were by no means given up, but it was not intended this year to ask for any money for the purpose. With regard to the Spithead forts, the question as to where the works ought to be placed bad been referred to a Committee, and he believed their Report would be presented in a few days.

§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE
said, the works to which he had referred were not at Stourbridge, but on the east side, and he trusted they would not be lost sight of.

§ MR. HENNESSY
said, he believed that fortifications in Cork harbour had been included in the schedule of the Bill of last year. He wanted to know when the Report of the Dockyard Committee on the subject would be laid upon the table?

§ LORD CLARENCE PAGET
It will be laid on the table to-night.