§ CAPTAIN PIMasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Why the Return ordered by the House on the 14th of March, relative to the "Vanguard" disaster, has not been completed; and, whether he has any objection to annex to the Return the correspondence which has since taken place on the subject with the Secretary of the Admiralty?
§ MR. HUNT,in reply, said, the Return in question was laid on the Table of the House a considerable time ago; he could not state the exact date, but at all events with reasonable despatch. The hon. and gallant Member complained that in the Return certain designs of ships which it contained were not drawn in the way he wished with respect to certain shadings and perspective. He (Mr. Hunt) could only say that the Return was drawn in the best way the resources at the command of the Admiralty would permit, and could not have been prepared as the hon. and gallant Member desired without engaging special artists, and thereby entailing considerable expense in the production of fresh copper-plates. He hoped the House would consider that the Return had been prepared in a reasonable manner. With regard to the Correspondence which the hon. and gallant Member wished to be laid on the Table, it consisted of letters from the hon. and gallant Member himself, couched in a sarcastic tone, with reference to the conduct of the Admiralty. He could not conceive that any public object would be gained by laying such a Correspondence on the Table, and he would suggest to the hon. and gallant Member that if he wished any Correspondence of his own to be placed on the Table, he should frame it in a different character and in a more official tone. He hoped the hon. and gallant Member would not press for this Correspondence, and that in any future communications with the Admiralty he 338 would address them in different language.
§ CAPTAIN PIMI beg to give Notice that I shall move for a Return of the Correspondence that has passed between myself and the Admiralty.