§ MR. A. GUESTasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If he will lay upon the Table of the House Copies of instructions or letters that have been sent to the Officers in charge of Her Majesty's Dockyards at Home and Abroad, with reference to the receipt of coal delivered from contractors, without verifying its quality and weight?
§ MR. GOSCHENSir, in April last year the Admiralty, as a tentative measure, directed that coals need not be weighed prior to receipt in the dockyards, but that the usual merchant-like 56 course of receiving them as per bill of lading should be adopted. To test this measure, about a month after coals were ordered to be weighed; and the Admiralty, finding they were losing by the practice they had recently adopted, rescinded their former order in June. As to quality, there is a distinct clause in the agreements that the dockyard officers have the power of rejecting inferior coals, and compelling the contractors to replace the rejected coals.