§ MR. HENRY BAILLIEasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it is true that the Government is about to award a large sum of money to Major Palliser, as the inventor of chilled iron projectiles, when it is stated in the well-known American work on Ordnance and Armour, by Hollay, page 495, that Captain Parrott had used chilled iron projectiles for ironclad fighting during the Civil War in the United States?
GENERAL PEELI propose, in the Estimates we shall lay on the table next week, to include a limited sum for the reward of inventors of whose inventions we have availed ourselves; and a portion of the Vote will be awarded to Major Palliser, who, for the last three years, has devoted his time almost exclusively to the carrying out of those experiments of which we have availed ourselves. When I propose the Vote I shall fully explain the grounds on which this acknowledgment is made; and if my hon. Friend wishes to object to it he will have the opportunity of doing so; but of all the charges of lavish expenditure brought against the War Office, that of rewarding inventors too highly is the one they are least open to.