§ LORD HENRY BRUCE (Wilts, Chippenham)asked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether there is any intention of the Government to act upon the recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1859, and of more than one Select Committee, to construct a Harbour of Refuge in the Bristol Channel; and, if so, when it will be commenced; what has been the loss of vessels and lives in the Bristol Channel since the Royal Commission recommended the construction of this Harbour of Refuge; and, whether it is a fact that the shipping trade of the Bristol Channel is at the present moment at least one-fifth part of the whole of England?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)The matter to which the noble Lord refers is one in which, as one of the Members for Bristol, I am naturally much interested. I am sorry that I cannot give him the number of vessels lost in the Bristol Channel; but the number of lives lost by wrecks and casualties (excluding collisions and missing vessels) since 1859 is 1,314. The noble Lord is correct in supposing that the shipping trade of the Bristol Channel is about one-fifth part of that of the whole of England. As regards the intentions of the Government, I am 27 afraid, notwithstanding what I have stated, that I can only repeat that the Government have no intention of departing from the policy pursued by successive Governments in past years, under which they have hitherto declined to make grants of money for harbour construction except in cases of Imperial and National necessity.