The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-17 00:00:00

THE ORDNANCE ESTIMATES

The second report of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on Army and Ordnance expenditure
was issued on Saturday. The minutes of evidence, and
the appendix attaehed, will not be issued for six weeks
or two months. in consequence of their being very
voluminous. Tl;e report itself is of great length, and of
a very extraordinary character, but it is far too long to
print in our columns. This document concludes with
the following recommendations of the Committee:—
"In concluding their report upon the Ordnance esti-
mates, your committee desire to follow the course taken
in the former report upon the navy, and to bring dis-
tinctly under the notice of the House of Commons those
principles which will afford the most efficient means of
controlling the future expenditure of this department.
" The whole amount to he voted in the Ordnance esti-
mates cannot, however, be brought under a few general
principles.
" The numbers of the Ordnance corps regulate the
charge under the first vote; but do not in any great
degree influence the amount required under other votes.
" It has been shown that a large portion of the Ord-
nance expenditure depends upon circumstances over
which the Ordnance exercises no direct control. The
functions of this department are in many cases strictly
executive; it meets the demands made upon it for the
services of the army and navy, consequently the esti-
mates of the Ordnance must be, to a great extent, go-
verned by decisions in those offices to which are confided
the details of our naval and military organization.
" For these expenses the Ordnance cannot be held re-
sponsible, and any reduction of the estimates, as far as
regards this portion of their whole amount, can only be
effected by the exercise of vigilant economy in other
departments, by a more restricted consumption of Ord-
nance stores, and by a revision of the regulations under
which these stores are now supplied and maintained.
Your committee have called attention to this increased
consumption in their notice of barrack supplies under
Vote No. 2; and, again, more particularly in their re-
marks on the manufacturing departments, under Votes
No. 4 and 5.
" 'Under Vote No. I.—The Ordnance Military Corps.
—Your committee recommend that the system practised
in regard to the army should be applied to the Ordnance
military corps ; namely, that any change in the strength
of this corps should be officially communicated to the
Master-General by the Secretary of State, and that the
amount of force should be separately brought under the
notice of the House of Commons in a distinct vote sub-
mitted for its approval.
" Under Vote No. 2.—Commissariat and Barrack
Supplies.—Your committee have noticed the increased

chirge to the public arising from the system recently
adopted by the Treasury in regard to the troops in Ire-
land, although this does not appear in the Ordnance
estimates, and they have suggested the expediency of
reverting to the mode of supplying the troops previously
in use.

" Tinder Vote No. 3. Ordnance-office.—Your com-
mittee have not been able to examine into the depart-
ments which the Commission of 1837 proposed to con-
solidate. They have stated the causes which have pre-
vented them from entering upon the consideration of
this extensive field of inquiry during the present session.
" They have, however, examined into the constitution
of the Ordnance-office. They are of opinion that the
constitution of the office, the division of the subordi-
nate departments, and the mode of transacting business,
are capable of considerable improvements, and ought
to be revised by the Government; but they have
abstained from proposing any scheme for the
future constitution of the Ordnance, because they be-
lieve that any improvement in the practical working of
the office can only be effected by the Executive Go-
vernment, and by the co-operation of persons familiar
with the details of business now transacted by the
Ordnance. •

" Your Committee also recommend that the warrant
of 182.5 should be revised, and that the control of the
Treasury over all salaries and new appointments should
be rendered complete.
" Vote No. 4.—Ordnance and Barrack Establishments
—Your committee recommend that the number of arti-
ficers and workmen in the manufacturing departments,
at Woolwich and elsewhere, should be fixed according
to the wants of the service in time of peace, and that no
addition should be mado without the written sanction of
the Treasury.
" Your committee recommend that some of the es-
tablishments in the smaller colonies in the West Indies
and Canada should be dispensed with ; and they are of
opinion that in Canada, with the present improved
means of communication by steam and railroads, the
concentration of stores at a smaller number of stations
might be sufficient for the supply of the force to be main-
tained there.
" Vote No. 6.—Ordnance Stores.—Your committee
direct the attention of the House to the large sums ex-
pended for these stores. The value of Ordnance
stores at present in the custody of the department
(exclusive of barrack stores) amounts to 6,420,000/.
Your committee cannot pretend to regulate the
quantity of any articles which should be kept in store;
but they recommend that the stores should be made to
approximate more nearly to the wants of the service in
time of peace. The large sums at various times expended
for the purchase of stores, which are now obsolete, prove
the expediency of maintaining a small stock of the
more durable as well as of the perishable articles.
The facilities which this country possesses of obtaining
a large supply in the event of an emergency, might, in
the opinion of your committee, relieve the Ordnance
from the necessity of keeping so large a stock ; and the
more rapid means of conveyance, both by sea and land,
which has enabled mercantile establishments to reduce
their stock, might in a similar manner be rendered con-
ducive to public economy.
" Your committee recommend an inquiry into the pre-
sent system of keeping the store accounts, in reference to
which they have received some valuable evidence, a sum-
mary of which is to be found under Vote No. 3.
" The items under Vote No. 6 should be further sub-
divided; and it is desirable that the amount annually re-
quired for the purchase of timber, of iron ordnance, and
of gunpowder, should be separately stated.
Vote No. 7.—Works, Buildings, and Repairs.—
Your committee are of opinion that for the future
more direct responsibility should be enforced in regard
to new works, especially works of defence ; for this
purpose they recommend that the written order of
the Secretary of State should be obtained before any
sum for a new fortification be inserted in the esti-

mates. The responsibility of the Treasury is not hereby
intended to be removed, but an additional and prelimi-
nary check introduced. They recommend also that any
sum expended on unforeseen services, or urgent works,
and of which Parliament has now cognizance, according
to present arrangements, should be hereafter stated in the
estimates of the ensuing year, and that the sanction of
the Treasury should he annexed to this statement.

" Under Vote No. 8, the Scientific Vote, your Com•
mittee suggest the expediency of accelerating the
survey of the large towns, which they are informed
would facilitate those measures of improvement required
for the health of the inhabitants.
" July 12, 1849."

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—The following
gentlemen having undergone the necessary examinations
for the diploma were admitted members of the college at
the meeting of the Court of Examiners on the 13th
inst.:—Messrs. Henry John Phillips, Kensington; Tho-
mas Ellis, Balbriggan, county of Dublin; William
Frederick Bassett, London; George King, Melksham,
Wilts; Sail Assaid, Syria; Charles James Morris,
Gloucester-terrace, Hyde-park; George Brown Turner,
Horton, Gloucestershire; William Squire, Silsoe, Bed-
fordshire; George Hodson, Chester; William Har-
greaves Manifold, Liverpool; George Anthony Kirsopp
Lake, Teignmouth, Devon; Charles Henry Sinnock,
Eastbourne, Sussex; and Henry William Hughes,
Gawchmai, Anglesea.
CITY IMPROVEMENTS.—For some days past work-
men have been busily employed in removing a very large
portion of the how es lying between Queen-street, St.
Thomas-the-Apostle, and Cloak-lane. These wholesale
operations are only preparatory to the formation of a
broad and continous thoroughfare extending from Earl-
street, Bleckfriare to London-bridge. The formation of
this line of street will materially relieve Cheapside,
Ludgate-hill, and St. Paul's Churchyard from the pre-
sent inconvenient amount of carriage traffic, without
doing any injury to the trade of the locality, and, in
addition to this advantage, it will be the means of re-
moving a great many close streets and thoroughfares
which, in their present state, are neither convenient nor
healthy. The operations have been commenced from
Queen-street with the intention of completing the line
to London-bridge before commencing to work from the
same point towards Blackfriars. The new street will in-
tersect Bow-lane and Bennett's-hill, avoiding the parish
church of St. Bennett. This course will also prevent its
interfering with the parish church of St. Ann, Black-
friars. It will be necessary to interfere with the grave-
yard of St. John Zachary and St. John the Baptist, and
that, perhaps, is the only serious interference to be
made. This alteration may be looked upon as a sanitary
improvement quite as much as an improvement of eotn•
merce.
BATHS AND WASEMOUSES FOR Tili-CITY.—On
Saturday night a meeting was held at the house of Mr.
Ross, surgeon, in Farringdon -street, for the purpose of
taking preliminary steps toward the establishment of
baths and washhouses in the heart of the city. The
meeting was respectably attended, and the following re-
solution was passed:—" Resolved, that this meeting is of
opinion that the establishment of public baths and
washhouses in the city of London would be highly be-
neficial to the health, and conducive to the comfort and
well-being of all classes of the community, but especially
of the industrial populetion, and that the institution of
such means for the improvement of the habits and social
condition of the people is of peculiar and paramount
importance in this locality, where the mortality from
and
preventible disease, arising out of local domestic
pollutions, has obtained a very large
excess above the
mean standard of the metropolis; and that it is
the
bounden duty of the inhabitants to exert themselves,
to use all the influence they possess to secure the acC and
one
plishment of this highly necessary and benevolent ob:
feet." The resolution was passed unanimously, as were
also others pledging the gentlemen present to use their
utmost exertions with the deputies and Common Council
connected with the ward, in order that a meeting of the
inhabitants—under the presidency of the Right lion. the
Lord Mayor—may be called, without delay, to take the
opinion of such meeting with reference to this important
sanitary movement. The meeting then adjourned until
Thursday evening next.
Tnuaso, JULY 10..---HERRING FISHING.--We are
happy to state that those pursuing the fishing on this
coast, both in large and small boats, had good success
last week. It is several years past, we believe, since they
were so fortunate here. The consequence has been, that
scarce a boat is now to be seen on the river after sunset—
all are engaged in the pursuit of herrings.—Ross-shireAd-
vertirer.

The Right lion. Henry Labouchere has returned to
town from Osborne, Isle of Wight.

LAW INTELLIGENCE
HOUSE OF LORDS, July 16.
BURNES V. PEN'NELL AND OTHERS.

This was an appeal against a decree of the Court of
Session in Scotland, by which judgment had been given
in two conjoined actions against the appellant. A per-
son named M'Kenzie, the clerk of the appellant, bad
bought sat--. shares in the Forth Marine Assurance
Complaff. The concerns of the company had not been
prosperous, and a call was made, which M•lienzie was
unable to answer. The appellant, at M‘liensie's de-
sire, saw a Mr. Gilmour, the law agent of the company,
and heard from him a statement of the concerns of the
company. The appellant returned home and bought
M'Kenzie's shares. Heavy losses still continued to
occur, and fresh and large calls were made by the direc-
tors. The appellant set up, in answer to these calls, and
also in support of on action to be relieved from his
shares, that he had been induced to make the purchases
by the representations made to him by Gilmour of the
state of the company when he called on that person re-
specting the money due from M'Keszie. 'The Court of
Session had decided against him and hence this appeal.
The Attorney-General and Mr. Anderson appeared
for the appellant, and Mr. Rolt and Mr. Inglis (of the
Scotch bar), for the respondent.
The House had taken time to consider the case.

Lord CAMPBELL now moved the judgment of the
HOll2O, which affirmed that of the Court below, with
costs.

VICE•CHANCERY COURT, July 16.
(Before Sir J. WIGRAIL)

BROADEN V. SOUTH•EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY-THE