HC Deb 04 August 1879 vol 249 c60
COLONEL BERESFORD

asked the Surveyor General of the Ordnance, Whether, in consideration of twenty-five years having elapsed without any person, other than Mr. Padwick, having claimed to be the inventor of the "Soft Stud System of Projectiles," he will refer Mr. Padwick's claim to three independent Members of this House to determine how far Mr. Padwick is justified in asserting his claim to the invention?

LORD EUSTACE CECIL

When my hon. and gallant Friend asked me a Question upon this subject 10 days ago, I stated then that the Select Ordnance Committee had reported, in 1865, that Mr. Padwick could not be looked upon as the inventor of "elongated projectiles with soft metal studs," as experiments were conducted in France with these projectiles four years before Mr. Padwick claimed to have invented them—namely, in 1850. This was approved by the then Secretary of State (Lord de Grey), and Mr. Padwick was so informed. The case was again taken up by the right hon. Member for Tamworth (Sir Robert Peel) and by Colonel Fane in 1866; but the then Secretary of State (General Peel) affirmed the former decision, which was affirmed again in 1870 by Lord Cardwell. Under these circumstances, with every desire to do justice as between the public and Mr. Padwick, my hon. and gallant Friend will see the impossibility of re-opening a question which has been repeatedly decided by successive Secretaries of States in a sense adverse to Mr. Padwick, by referring his claims to a tribunal for which there is no precedent whatever.