§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET rose to put a question to the noble Lord at the head of the War Department with reference to the Ordnance Survey. He understood, from what had taken place last night, that the Government were prepared to issue a Commission to reconsider the whole subject of the survey in Scotland. He (the Duke of Somerset) had supposed that the whole of that question was set at rest by the previous decision of the House of Commons. It now appeared, however, that that decision was to be set aside, and that the subject was to be reconsidered. As 1659 this was a matter involving several millions of money, he wished to ask his noble Friend what instructions were to be issued to the Commission regarding the survey? According as the map required was for military, geological, or sanitary purposes, these instructions would necessarily be different. He, therefore, wished to know what the instructions were, and whether his noble Friend would agree to lay a copy of them upon the table of the House.
§ LORD PANMUREsaid, he could not undertake to give a categorical answer as to what instructions would be issued; but he thought he had last night clearly stated the spirit in which the Commission would be appointed. The survey had taken place in England, Ireland, and Scotland upon different scales, and the House of Commons had more than once interfered with those scales, and had come on different occasions to different conclusions respecting them. No decision of the House of Commons in regard to the scale on which the survey should be conducted was therefore likely to be final. The object of the Commission would be to ascertain on what scale the survey should be made—not on what scale a large map should be published. If the survey was conducted on a given scale, it could afterwards be easily reduced by a new scientific process, and copied on any scale that might suit the convenience of the public. The general effect of the instructions to be issued to the Commissioners would therefore be that they should inquire, in conjunction with scientific men and men connected with the law, what would be the most convenient scale to adopt for the survey, so as to secure perfect accuracy in all the reductions to be made from it.