§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether he proposes, before he commits the Country to a large expenditure for harbours and coast defences, to submit the type of ships which he intends shall form that force, to the consideration of the Committee now sitting on Ironclad Ships; or to obtain their opinion as to the type of vessel or vessels they consider to be the best suited for that purpose?
§ MR. GOSCHEN, in reply, said, the form of the Question was likely to convey the erroneous impression that the Government was about to put the country to a large expense for harbour and coast defence. They had no such intention. The construction of gunboats would be proceeded with as rapidly as possible; but the type of those gunboats had not been referred to the Committee on iron-clad ships. As regarded the larger class of ships, such as the Cyclops, there was no intention, on the part of the Government, to lay down new ships of that class in the present financial year.