SIR JOHN HAYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for War, 1198 Whether he is aware that the "Balance Sheet" submitted by the Royal Gun Factory to a Committee of the late Parliament "on Ordnance" has since been found to be erroneous, and if he will lay upon the table of the House a corrected Balance Sheet of that date, to be appended to the Report of that Committee?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, in reply, that in answer to an almost precisely similar question, asked by another hon. Member, he had stated that it was true that an alteration had been made, in the form in which the balance-sheets were now rendered to Parliament, and that the indirect expenditure of the Maufacturing Department was now charged in a different manner to that in which it was formerly charged. He could not, however, admit that the balance-sheet to which the hon. and gallant Member referred was an erroneous one, although it might be considered that the present system was a more accurate one. He was, however, perfectly willing to admit that if the system had been adopted in the balance-sheets to which the hon. and gallant Member re-ferred, the apparent cost of each gun made in the manufactory would have been considerably enhanced. The preparation of two balance-sheets would involve a considerable expenditure of time and labour; he would not undertake, therefore, to lay them upon the table of the House.