was true, the terms of this arrangement had been made for ten years, as persons expending such a capital could not enter into any contract for a less term; but it had been an article in the contract, that, if during the ten years any great improvements should be made in steam navigation, the Government should have the benefit of them.

Mr. Hume wished to ask, if any prospectuses had been issued, setting forth the duties to be performed, and calling for tenders; and also whether the hon. Gentleman was able to state if the parties were now in a condition to carry their agreement into effect, or if it would be necessary even now to form a company for that purpose?

Mr. C. Wood was understood to say that no prospectuses had been issued. He had no hope of a better tender. Considering, too, that the parties would have to build at least fourteen steam-vessels of four hundred horse-power, it could not be expected that they would be able to commence for some months.

The Solicitor-General said, the subject was of the deepest interest to his constituents; and there were one or two points to which we wished to call the attention of his hon. Friend. He could not claim on behalf of those whom he had the honour to represent, that the consideration of their interests should weigh with the Government or with the House, to induce them to forego the advantages of steam, if steam were (as he believed it was) more expeditious for the transmission of correspondence than sailing vessels. But even on this point he begged it to be recollected, that the packet service, being a branch of our naval establishment, presented a laudable object of ambition to those desirous of entering the navy, and who might otherwise be unemployed; thus was it a nursery for British seamen, and answered ends which would not be effected by a contract system. Supposing, however, that the Government had taken an unalterable resolve, he yet would especially entreat them-they might believe it was with no ill-will he did soto make the change with the least possible injury to a port which had been for a hundred and fifty years the port of communication across the Atlantic; -with the least possible injury to the he would not say vested rights-but the valuable interests of those who had laid out large capital in extensive establishments at Falmouth. And what he suggested was, that it should be made part of the contract-as to a certain

extent he trusted he might say it had been

that the establishment must to some degree be fixed at Falmouth. He said this, because he believed it was admitted, that there was no port in the United Kingdom from which vessels could start so advantageously for the stations across the Atlantic as Falmouth, there being no wind with which vessels could not sail thence. Another consideration, in which the public were interested, was this: -The letters that went from Falmouth came partly from London; but that was not the greatest proportionthe greatest proportion came from the north, from Glasgow and Ireland; and unless the letters were taken in at some of the western ports they would be delayed. Unless, therefore, these packets were bound by their contract to take in letters at the extreme ports there would be great delay. What he was now stating was not chimerical, for during the last three or four weeks no less than three packets had been delayed sixtyseven hours, in consequence of not being stationed at Falmouth. He trusted, in conelusion, that the sense of the House would be manifested in favour of his view of the case, in order that his hon. Friend might see the propriety of adopting it, which, it was his belief, would be agreeable to his hon. Friend.

Mr. F. Baring hoped the House would express no opinion with respect to the propriety of placing the packet station at Falmouth, or elsewhere. If he was in the situation of his hon. Friend, standing up in that House as the advocate of his constituents, he should advocate the station being at Portsmouth. The Treasury were determined to fix upon the place for a packet station which was most beneficial to the public service, and not to consider the interests of any parties in particular. He had great gratification in reflecting that, while his noble Friend was at the head of the Treasury, the Government, in conjunction with the Admiralty, had been able to confer the greatest advantages upon the commerce of the country with the world, by the increased facilities it had afforded to trade. During the last few years a weekly communication by steam had been established with Gibraltar-a fortnightly communication with the Baltic-a fortnightly communication with Corfu and the Grecian Islands-a steam communication between England and India - a fortnightly communication between England and North America; and now they had secured, by the last arrangement, a fortnightly steam

of the utmost consequence that they should consider whether they would not by this plan be destroying the nursery for the navy. He agreed with the hon. Member for Falmouth in opinion that the Government had by no means established a case.

Mr. Aglionby was anxious to know, whether the Secretary to the Admiralty intended to grant this return or not?

Mr. C. Wood-Certainly not.

Mr. Aglionby understood as much, and therefore the groundwork of the argument of the hon. Member for Kilkenny was cut away. It was said to be impossible to grant these returns. He should like to know in what the impossibility consisted. If any contract was in existence it could be produced, and if no such contract existed, it was easy to state so. If no offers had been made, where was the difficulty of stating so? It had been stated by the hon. Member for Penryn, that an offer had been made to carry the mails for 100,000l. ayear less than the sum agreed to be given by the Government. Now, this would be a saving of 1,000,000l. in the ten years, which was worthy of consideration. There had been no public notification either by advertisement or otherwise to the mercantile interest, until the matter accidentally transpired. It did not appear, then, that there had been any efficient public notice, which there ought to have been before the country was committed to a ten years bargain, and to a sum of money much less than which, he believed, even for a shorter period, would have been sufficient.

Lord Eliot said, the Falmouth deputation who had waited on the Treasury, not only were previously ignorant of any such con. tract being in contemplation, but they also left the Treasury equally in the dark.

Mr. C. Wood thought his hon. Friend the Member for Cockermouth could not have listened to what he had stated, which was distinctly, first, that the contract was just as he had represented it to the House, next, that it was not a private, but a public tender, and thirdly, that no other offer had been made. With respect to the question of the hon. Member opposite (Mr. Freshfield), all he had to say was, that the Government had reserved to themselves the right of naming the port from which the vessels were to start. With respect to the complaint, that the arrangement had been effected by private contract, he would observe, that in every instance where public tenders had been invited by the Govern

vernment had always succeeded in making much better terms by private contract. As an instance of that, when it was proposed to carry the mail to Rotterdam, public tenders were asked for, and only one was received, and that of such a character that the Government felt bound to decline it. So with respect to Cadiz, Liverpool, Dublin, and Halifax, in all of which cases the Government had made much better terms by private contract. He believed, that the present bargain was an extremely good one for the Government and the public. It remained for the House to say whether, under all the circumstances, the bargain was a fair one or not.

Captain Pechell, said the hon. Gentleman had objected to giving a copy of the contract for the conveyance of the West India mails, on the ground of its being incomplete; but no such objection could apply to the contract with Halifax, because in a Nova Scotia paper he had seen a vote of thanks to the agent, Mr. Cuqard, on the ground of his having made so good a bargain with the English Government. He thought, that great caution should be used with respect to the doing away with the establishment at Falmouth, as it had always been a most excellent nursery for our seamen. He begged to ask, too, how the mail was to be carried from Halifax to Boston. [Mr. C. Wood-By steam.] That was so far satisfactory; but it was very important to know what the means of communication were to be between England and our frontier colony of Bermuda. He trusted these questions would be answered to the satisfaction of the House and the country.

Mr. G. Palmer thought, the Government could not be too open in their dealings with respect to all matters of contract, and deprecated the encouragement of steam-vessels, which he considered destroyed nurseries for seamen.

Admiral Adam said, that the steamers would carry almost as many seamen as the packets used to do. But he would ask was it nothing for this country to have an immense force of large steam-vessels, so that, if a war were to break out tomorrow, we could at once arm and man them for the purpose of protecting our commerce, not only in the channel but all over the world? He knew there were at present a great many objections to steam-vessels, but time and experience would overcome them.

Mr. Hume wished, before the question was disposed of, to make one or two observations. He admitted, that he had been ignorant of the facts stated by the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Wood), but he did not think the Admiralty or the Government had the power of binding this country to contracts for ten years. Hitherto there had always been an annual vote for the expenses of the packets. He would venture to say, that never had there been 2,400,000/. disposed of by one branch of the Government without the knowledge of Parliament. The contract appeared to him to be a most monstrous proposition. He trusted the Government would pause before they placed themselves in a situation from which they could not retire, for he was quite sure Parliament would not sanction a thing of this sort being done privately. If they had power to dispose of this sum, why should they not have the power to dispose of 20,000,000l.? If they were able to make a contract of this nature for ten years, why not for fifty? In fact, they might bind down the whole expenditure of the country. If there was any objection to the form of the motion, he would alter it in any way which might be pointed out.

Mr. F. Baring said, the returns would not answer the purpose of the hon. Member; he had better move for the whole of the correspondence. The Government had been repeatedly urged by parties in that House to perform this service by contract, and the moment they did so their powers were doubted. This struck him as most extraordinary; it was of great importance that this question should be settled, both out of fairness to the Government and to the parties interested. The hon. Gentleman had better give notice of a motion for suspending the contracts at once.

Mr. Hume said, that would be hardly fair towards him. He had always been friendly to a plan for executing these duties by contract, and as to the question of power, the Attorney-general was the proper person to apply to. He had no wish to move for the correspondence, but he would advise the Government to pause. Mr. C. Wood said, it would be impossible to give the hon. Gentleman more information on the subject than he had already given him. If next Session he chose to move for every scrap of paper connected with the subject, he should have no objection to furnish him with them.

HOUSE OF LORD S,

Thursday, August 22, 1839. MINUTES.] Bills. Read a second time :-Bankrupts (Ire

land); Administration of Justice (Parts of Counties); Exchequer Bills; Consolidated Fund.-Read a third time: -Metropolis Improvement.

Petitions presented. By the Marquess of Bute, from Ayr, for Parochial Education; also for Church Extension; from several places, against Intruding Ministers into Parishes against the Wishes of the People. - By Lord Brougham, from Prisoners in Monmouth Goal, against the Injustice of their Sentence.

COLONEL BRADLEY.) Lord Brougham presented a petition from Mr. Thomas Bradley, late lieutenant-colonel of his late Majesty's 2nd West-India regiment of foot, in which the petitioner went over the whole of the dispute which had occurred between him and Sir George Arthur, and which has been before the public repeatedly for several years past. The petitioner complained of the injustice under which he had so long suffered, and concluded his statement in these words :

"It must be evident to your Lordships, from your Lordships from the above statement, that your petitioner has been deprived of his commission withou trial, and without having been guilty of any military offence whatever; and your petitioner, therefore, humbly prays that he may not be deprived of the ordinary privilege of a Brirish subject, but that your Lordships will at least enquire for what reason he has been stripped of his commission, after twenty years of arduous service in the WestIndies and America."

After adverting to the facts of the case, the noble and learned Lord said he was greatly astonished that any difficulty should stand in the way of justice being done to this injured gentleman by restoring him to his rank in the service. Even if Mr. Bradley had acted erroneously (which, in his opinion, was not the case), he had, assuredly, suffered quite enough. He had suffered a long imprisonment in a most unwholesome climate; he had been ousted from the service; he had been deprived of his commission, and had suffered a pecuniary loss of 1,900l. It was a case of very great hardship, and he hoped, that his noble Friend, at the head of the Executive Government, would take it into serious consideration.

The Duke of Wellington said, that as a commission of which he was a member, was now sitting, and had been sitting for a considerable time, before which, cases of this nature might be heard, he did not wish to offer any opinion on this petition. The noble and learned Lord had not stated that

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