§ VISCOUNT BARRINGTONsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Board 1869 of Trade, Whether the Government have received any authentic information respecting the lamentable collision between the "Bombay" Steamship, belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the United States' Corvette "Oneida?"
§ MR. SHAW-LEFEVREreplied, that the Board of Trade had received no information as yet beyond what was in the newspapers as to the collision adverted to by the noble Lord, and the lamentable loss of life resulting to the crew of the United States' vessel Oneida. On receiving the first tidings of this disaster the Board of Trade took steps to insure a full and searching inquiry into it, but he had heard to-day that a court of inquiry had already been held at Hong Kong, and that it had suspended for six months the certificate of Captain Eyre, the master of the Bombay. The Report of these proceedings would be laid before the House as soon as it was received. In the meantime he earnestly hoped, for the credit of the merchant service, that the facts brought out before the court of inquiry would show that the master of the Bombay was not so culpable as had been represented.