§ CAPTAIN PIMasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether his attention has been drawn to a letter in the "Times" of the 13th inst., signed E. J. Reed, House of Commons, July 11th, in which it was alleged that, with reference to the Return, Navy (H.M.S. "Inflexible") No. 295,
the figures given in the table on page 10 as representing the case are wrong in respect of both ships, as the sheet of diagrams and the small-type foot-note on page 11 clearly shows;also to the fact that the present Chief Constructor in the said Return, at page 19, makes grave statements against the greater portion of the ironclad vessels designed by the late Chief Constructor; and, whether, under these circumstances, he will not consider the desirability of an inquiry into the whole subject being made by a Select Committee of this House, instead of a limited inquiry by an Admiralty Committee as at present contemplated?
§ MR. A. P. EGERTON, in reply, said, he begged to inform the hon. and gallant Gentleman that he had seen the letter, and it was his duty to state that the Admiralty was not prepared to recommend either that the question relating to the Inflexible, or the larger questions connected with our iron-clad Fleet, past, present, or future, should be referred to a Committee of that House.
§ CAPTAIN PIMThen I beg to give Notice that to-morrow I shall repeat my Question in another form.