"
(Loud cheers.) The extract from the memorandum states
that "the ship is to be finished complete, with guns and everything
appertaining." (Renewed cheering and laughter.) On the 14th of August
I received another letter from the same gentleman, from which the
following is an extract:
"I have this morning a note from the Assistant-Secretary
of the Navy, in which he says, 'I hope your friends will tender
for the two-iron plated steamers.'" (Hear, hear.) After this,
the firm with which I was lately connected, having made contracts
to a large extent with other persons, stated that they were
not in a position to undertake any orders to be done in so short
a time. This was the reply:
"I sent your last letter, received yesterday, to the Secretary
of the Navy, who was very desirous to have you build the iron-plated
or bomb-proof batteries, and I trust that he may yet decide
to have you build one or more of the gunboats."
(Loud cheers.) I think, perhaps, in the present state of the
law in America, I shall not be asked to give the name of my
correspondent (hear), but he is a gentleman of the highest respectability.
If any honourable member wishes, I should have no hesitation in handing
the whole correspondence, with the original letters, into the hands of
you, sir, or the First Minister of the Crown, in strict confidence,
because there are communications in these letters respecting the views
of the American Government which I certainly should not divulge, which
I have not mentioned or alluded to before.
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