The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

rangements in a satisfactory manner. Each vessel to carry a
distinguishing flag at the fore on the 23d inst.—namely,
Transit, white, with blue cross ; Perseverance, blue."
On the evening of Friday last the commander of the Tran-
sit wrote to Capt. Milne as follows :

" H.M. S. Transit, Fri(lay, April 18.
"My dear Sir,—l have written to the commander-in-chief
that the dockyard men will have completed us on Saturday
(to-morrow), and requesting a Southampton pilot. Wines, &c.,
are on board, and everything in a fair way, promising to turn
out well. We have ample room on main deck to sit down 450
at one time, and could make a few more seats in case of ne-
cessity.

" Very faithfully yours,
" C. R. JOHNSON."

In point of fact, the whole difficulty arose in the convey-
ance of the visitors from London. If that conveyance had
been performed as we had every reason to believe that it
would have been performed, I am perfectly convinced that
evelythieg would have gone on right. It was not for us to
provide that conveyance ; but we communicated with Mr.
Scott, the manager of the railroad, and I hold in my hand
a paper which he sent us stating what he was prepared
to de. He informed us that train No. 3, for the mem-
bers of the two Houses of Parliament, would leave London
at 7, and would arrive at Southampton at 9.15. Captain
Milne, to whom was entrusted the management of those
arrangements on the part of the Board of Admiralty, saw
the manager of the railway several times, and I myself saw
him once. Captain Milne sent him, two or three days
beforehand, a return of the number of persons who were to
be conveyed in the train appropriated to the use of the
members of the two houses, and gave bin every possible
information for the purpose of enabling him to carry out
in the most perfect menner the arrangements for their
conveyance. On the morning before the day of the review
Captain Milne expressed to him his great desire that no
delay s'.ould take place in conveying the members ; and
Mr. Scott stated, in reply, that no apprehension whatever
need be entertained upon that point ; that every precau,
tion had been taken for their conveyance, and that ho
might depend upon their arriving at Southampton at the
hour stated in the paper. (Hear, hear.) Now I really do
not know what more wo could have done for the purpose
of insuring the proper and comfortable conveyance of the
members of both Houses of Parliament; and I think I
shall have no difficulty in slowing that if there had been no
diseppoiatment on the railway all ,he arrangements of the
day might have been satisfactorily c rrried into effect. We
provided as far as we could that the members should ar-
rive at Southampton at the proper time. And then, with
respect to the short passage from the railway station at
Southampton to the water side, we wrote to the Mayor of
Southampton begging him to keep that passage as free as
possible for the members of the two Houses of Parliament.
It has been said that there aas n© person authorised to
take charge of the embarkation of members at Southampton.
But I can state that the greatest precautions were taken
upon that point. Cept. M'Dougall, an old and experienced
officer, who Intl boeu charged with the embarkation of the
troops at Southampton, was informed so far back as the
10th of the present month that the members of the House
of Lords and the House of Commons would embark at that
port for the review, and he was desired to make the neces-
sary arrangements for having them put ou board. Wo
were at that time aware that the large vessels in which
the members were to embark would be some distance out-
side the harbour, and we desired him to have smaller ships
which could take the members up at the wharf side, and
afterwards transport them to the Transit and the Persever-
ance. He reported that he could only hire two of these
smaller vessels, and we then ordered throe others from
Portsmouth ; and on Wednesday morning we had lying at
the wharf side in Suuthrempton, independently of the Har-
binger, a ship of same size, four small vessels capable of
conveying at one trip all the members of bath Houses of
Parliament. Capt. Milne went minutely with Captain
M'llouge.ll over the whole of the details connected with the
conveyance of the members of the two houses from the
wharf side to the Transit anti the Pe-severance. I saw
Capt. M`Deugall myself, and I told him that we depended
upon him for carrying out all the arrangements of the em-
barkation of the members of both houses. Commander
M'Donnell, of the Perseverance, was in town on Moeday
morning. Capt. Milne saw him then, and I saw him my-
self, and pointed out to him the course the vessels were to
pursue, and all the duties we expected him to discharge;
end neither Capt. M`Dougadl nor Commander M`Donnell
expresse l the slightest doubt of their being able to carry
out the arrangements entrusted to them, provided—and it
was an essential condition—the train should arrive about
the time stated by the railway comp my. According
to our calculations it might occupy half an hour, or say
three quarters, to take the members stepping on board
the tenders to the larger vessels lying outside the
harbour. But we allowed an hour for that purpose. They
would then have been on board of larger vessels at ten
o'clock ; but even if they had been on board of them at
half-past ten they would have been in ample time to see
the whole review. Once on board the Transit and Perseve-
rance they would have had the tame distance to get to the
west end of the line of the fleet which we who had em
barked at Portsmouth would have had to get to the east
end of it, f)r in each case the distance to be traversed
would have been about eight miles ; and if they had only
been on board at half-past ten o'clock they could have
assisted at all the operations of the review. At eleven
o'clock on Id nday night Captain Milne met me at the Ad-
miralty; we then went over all the orders given fur the
review, and we could not see that we had anything to add
to them. But, with the view of providing against the
possibiliti, of any orders of a contradictory character
being issued at Portsmouth, I went down at seven o'clock
on Tuesaay morning to see the admiral command-
ing th,ro. It appeared that some doubt prevailed
among the authorities in that quarter whether it would be
possible for the members of the two Houses of Parliament
to pass between the lines at the review. I deemed it es-
sential that they should. I stated to the admiral our views
upon the subject. In addition to the previous communi-
cations addressed to Capt. M'Dougall, I wrote him a pri-
vate letter telling him that the two HOVS29 of Parliament
were tp pass between the lines, but that their doing so
must depend on their starting at an early hour, and beg-
ging Matto pay particular attention that they should be in
time. I declare that Ido not now know what orders the
Admiralty could have issued or what pains they could have
taken to insure a satisfactory termination of the whole
proceedings, that they did not actually issue and take.
(Hear.) Sorry and annoyed, and vexed as lam that this
mistake should have occurred, I cannot charge myself or
any member of the Board of Admiralty with having ne-
glected any precaution by which it could have been avert-
rel. (Cheers.) Of course I shall be asked how the diffi-
culty arose, and in attempting to answer that question I
will read to the house a statement I received this morning
from a gentleman who is completely unknown to me, and
who was a pa,senger in what was known as the " Hima-
laya train." That statement appears to me to afford, 1 will
not say the most satisfactory, but the clearest explanation
of the delay which took place on the railway. He states
that the train in which ho travelled, which left at six
o'clock, and was the first of the special trains, was de-
layed by an ordinary or some other slow train—(an hon.
Member here said "The Parliamentary train")—by the
Parliamentary train—(loud and long-continued laughter)
—that it was delayed a considerable time, and that ho and
his fellow-passengers arrived very late at their destination.
He then continues as follows :

"I have described the train which impeded the first
special train in the morning. When we were at length
enabled to pass it I presume it took its own place on the
main line again, and offered the same impediment to the
following special train as it had offered in the first instance
to our own. That was called the breaking down of an
engine The engineer of that train simply did his duty in get-
ting it forward how he could and as quickly as he could.
When the company for the Himalaya arrived at Southampton
it was within, perhaps, three-fourths of an hour of the time
fixed for the eml arkation of one or other of the Houses of
Parliament. How was Capt. M{Dougall to know that they
would arrive at the time appointed ? Upon speaking to him,
which I did twice in the course of the night upon the subject
his reply was, the House of Peers or the Commons were ex-
pected to arrive at the time you actually reached the barri-
cade, and I thought it only reasonable that they should have
the preference of you ; but when I had waited a long time,
and found the Legislature did not make their appearance, and.
with an angry crowd of gentlemen before me, I could keep
the tenders idle no longer, and sent them full to different ships.
Was not that al very natural thing for the gallant officer to do
under the circumstances ? As to the wooden barricade, he
said he had nothing to do with it. So,' then, it comes to this,
the gallant officer was left in perfect igno, ance of everything
that had occurred to delay the trains by the railway authori-
ties ; and I and others who could have enlightened him were
prevented fiom approaching the pier from a wooden barri-
cade, erected by the Southampton authorities, no doubt from
the best motives. Had the first special train kept its time no
doubt the four tenders would have been at the disposal of the
company. They would have been enabled to return in time
for the succeeding trains, and everything would have been in
order. I have now stated to you briefly my observations ;
and again thanking, you, tte."

At the time the first special train arrived it was long after
the proper hour in consequence of the delay on the railway,
and the company readied the pier at Southampton about
three-quarters of an hour before the time named for the ar-
rival of the two Houses of Parliament. Captain M`Dougall
declined to allow the Company conveyed by that train tne
use of the tenders to cat ry them to the Himalaya, but after
waiting a considerable time he gave way to their remon-
strances and allowed them the use of the tenders. That
accounts for the absence of the tenders upon the arrival of
the members of the two Houses of Parliament. Had the
special train been to its time the tenders would immediately
hive conveyed the company on board the Himalaya, and
they would then have been able to return in time to receive
the members of Parliament. That Ibelieve is the real ex-
planation of what took place. Hon. gentlemen will see
that it really does all turn on the want of punctuality by
the railway company in working the trains. Every arrange
ment that we could make was made, and up to the la t
moment the strongest assurances were given that there was
no reason to apprehend any difficulty would arise in carry-
ing out those arrangements. I ought to say that I assure
hone gentlemen that nobody in this house can be more, or
f els more, dis pdointed than myself. (Cheers.) We were
mat anxious that every one should have an opportueity of
witnessing the review under the most favourable circum-
stances ; and I believe, if any fault has been committed, it
has arisen from attempting to give greater accommoda-
tion to the public than ever has been before afforded on a
similar occasion. We provided &mown° latiou in one way
or another for upwarus of 6,00 J persons in Government
vessels. lam not sure that, as matters have turned out, it
would not have been better to have allowed them to find
their own way in their own steamers ; but I can only say
that if anything has gone wrong we did not expect delay,
for we spared no pains to make the arrangements as per-
fect as poi4ible. Perhaps we attempted more than we
were justified in attempting, but we were must anxi4 ui
that everything should go off as satisfactorily as possible.
Capt. DUNCOMBE said the Transit was a broken down
vessel. He must in all other respects admit that every-
thing that could be done was done by the Admiralty ; but
the management and negligence of the railway officials
was disgraceful.

After some observations from Mr. NEWDEGATE and Sir
W. JOLLIFFE, on the defective railway communication
between our greatest naval arsenal and the seat of Govern-,
merit, which called for some immediate remedy,
Mr. CHAPLIN (who was very inaudible in the gallery)
expressed the extreme regret felt both by himself and his
colleagues that any member of the house had suffered in•
convenience in consequence of an accident on the railway
under their control. It must be considered, however, that
as the whole of the traffic upon that occasion had to be con,
veyed to' Southampton in about two hours, it Ivas
Bible that any engine could return from a particular point
to assist another. They had to start i» that time 16 trains,
and ho would inform the house how they were arranged.
The first was the five o'clock excursion train to Portsmouth;
that was followed by a train at 5.15, to accommodate the
officers of Aldershot ' the third was the 5.30, an excursion
train, conveying 670 passengers ; that train had the best
and most powerful engine belonging to the company, and
which was usually employed to move the heavy goods
trains. The weight of the excursion train conveyed by it on
Wednesday was 167 tons, 'w hereas the weight of the ordinary
goods trains, including the carriages, was 400 tons. This
engine proceeded as far as Briber, when one of the dent-