LORD HENRY LENNOXasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether, before the "Glatton" is fired at by Her Majesty's ship "Hotspur," he will lay upon the Table of the House a Programme of the intended experiment, showing what shot and shell are to be fired, and at what angles of the turret they are to be directed?
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, the Government would feel it to be their duty to give full information to the House with regard to this experiment; but he did not think it would be expedient—and it would certainly be contrary to rule—to place beforehand on the Table a programme of 428 the experiments to be performed. Moreover, such a course would appear to pledge the Admiralty that they would be carried out in a certain way, and would interfere with that absolute discretion over the conditions, time, and place of the experiments which the Executive Government were entitled to exercise on such occasions.