§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether it has been taken into consideration that a Sailing Ship leaving Capo Coast six weeks or two months hence, and bound to the West Indies, will be obliged to adopt the "middle passage;" and, in that event, whether the effects of a protracted voyage in such a climate on Officers and Men already debilitated may not be attended by disastrous effects?
§ MR. C. P. BERKELEYsaid, that before the noble Lord answered the Question of the hon. Baronet, he desired to put another Question to him on the same 34 subject, of which he had given him private notice. He wished to ask the noble Lord, What number of Officers and Men now upon the Gold Coast Station the Admiralty have been requested to provide passages for? and to call the noble Lord's attention to the statement made by him on that subject on Friday last. ["Order!"] He would move the adjournment of the House to put himself in order. It might be in the recollection of the House, that the hon. Baronet the Member for Wakefield, in the debate on the Ashantee War, called attention to a certain document, which had been laid on the table from the War Department. The Secretary to the Admiralty replying to the hon. and gallant Member's remarks on that document—
§ MR. SPEAKERI must direct the attention of the hon. Member to the fact that moving the adjournment of the House will not give him an opportunity of referring to past debates.
§ MR. C. P. BERKELEYThen I will simply put my Question.
§ LORD CLARENCE PAGETSir, the: middle passage to which the hon. Baronet (Sir James Elphinstone) has referred is, as he stated, necessarily taken by vessels going from that portion of the coast of Africa to the West Indies. The transport will be towed out, as I stated yesterday, into the offing, and will probably leave with a south-east trade; by making a westerly course she will probably carry the southeast trade for a day or two, and then get into the north-east trade, thus making the passage to the West Indies nearly as quick as a steamer. Anybody who knows that part of the world knows that in summer time one can run from the south-eastern into the north-eastern trade with very little delay; and I apprehend that the troops on board that ship will be just as comfortable as they would be in a steamer. I do not know exactly at what the Question of the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. C. P. Berkeley) is pointed, but I shall be very happy to give him the number of troops upon which the original requisition was founded, and likewise the subsequent arrangement with the military authorities. The first body of troops to be taken away consisted of 480 men, and a certain number of women and children, and were to go from Cape Coast Castle to the West Indies. Subsequently the War Office determined to send about six officers and 200 men from Cape Coast Castle to Lagos, where they will relieve about a similar 35 number, who are to be taken to Sierra Leone.