§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether any application was received praying that there should be a suspension of business in the Dockyard and other Government establishments at Portsmouth on the late occasion of Thanksgiving; and if he was aware that, in accordance with the recommendation of the mayor, there was a general cessation of business throughout the civil community?
§ MR. GOSCHEN, in reply, said, the only application received by the Admiralty from Portsmouth was sent by the Admiral Superintendent of the Dockyard, asking whether there was any intention to grant a holiday there on 1160 Thanksgiving Day. This question was answered in the negative. He was not aware whether the Mayor recommended a cessation of business in the town; nor did he know whether the recommendation was acted on; nor, if there was a cessation from business, whether the workmen in private firms were paid the same as though they worked on; nor whether the business of the town generally was of the same urgent importance as that now being carried on in Her Majesty's Dockyards. He could assure the hon. Baronet that it would have been a very easy and agreeable task for him to say that there should be a holiday in the Dockyard; but he feared he had added one more to the errors of the Government by refusing to sacrifice the public interests to local and individual wishes and convenience.