§ MR. HANBURYI have put down a question to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether it is the fact that the Admiralty have given a contract to a French firm, Messrs. Delaunay, Belleville, & Co., of St. Denis, for boilers to replace those of the Sharpshooter; and whether it is intended to extend or continue this practice of giving orders for ammunition, boilers, and similar warlike stores to the manufacturers and workmen of foreign countries? At the last 932 moment I have received a letter from the Secretary to the Admiralty asking me to postpone the question. I must therefore postpone it; but I do not know why Ministers should not be here as well as private Members.