HC Deb 15 August 1871 vol 208 c1655
MR. BOWRING (for Colonel SYKES)

, repeated the Question which had been put on the previous day without receiving any reply, as to the number of storm warnings issued by the Meteorological Department, and of the instances in which those warnings had been verified?

MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE

, in reply, said, he was sorry not to have been in his place on the previous day to answer the Question of his hon. and gallant Friend. Unfortunately, he did not know that the House met at 3 o'clock until too late to be present. The Meteorological Committee, not of the Board of Trade, but of the Royal Society—who took charge of those matters—were able to furnish, to a considerable extent, the information asked for by the hon. and gallant Member, but not in the shape in which he had put his Question upon the Paper. They wished it to be understood, however, that they did not regard those storm warnings in the light of prophecies, or the cases in which storms tad followed the warnings as fulfilments of prophecies.