§ MR. BOURKEsaid, he would beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to propose to carry out any of the Recommendations which were made by the Royal Commissioners in the year 1859 on the subject of Life Harbours and Harbours of Refuge?
MR. BRIGHTThe hon. Gentleman, I presume, knows that the Commission to which he refers made two principal suggestions, one of which past Boards of Trade and Governments have altogether refused to adopt, and the second of which has been in course of adoption from the time the Report of the Commission was issued. I need not, I think, 201 enter into detail in the matter. It may be sufficient to say that money is constantly advanced by the Public Works Loan Commissioners at the low rate of 3¼ or 3½ per cent to all places in which there are persons resident who deem a harbour to be desirable, and are willing to give security for the money so advanced. The Board of Trade feels perfectly assured that if the first suggestion of the Commission was adopted it would lead to an almost unlimited expenditure of the public money; and if any hon. Member wishes to make up his mind on that point, he has only to turn to the evidence taken before the Commission, from which he will find that the particular locality from which any witness happened to come was, in his opinion, not simply the best, but, in point of fact, the only place at which a harbour of refuge ought to be established, all other places being of no use for the purpose. The course which the Board of Trade has hitherto taken in the matter is that which it proposes to continue to pursue, and it will, therefore, make no change in its policy so far as the Report of the Commission is concerned.