Mr. Ward Hunt, on whose answer to Mr. Goschen's chief
criti- cism we have said enough elsewhere, replied that the Reserve Squadron was not sent out merely to practise the Coastguardsmen ; that, on the contrary, they were sent out for their own discipline and training ; and that there was no better training for a squadron than that of going into and out of harbour. The complement of men remaining in the Vanguard' was, in the opinion of her com- mander, amply sufficient to work the ship, and it was at his request that the Coastguardsmen were discharged before the voyage to Cork. Mr. Hunt defended the practice of letting the tax- payers see exactly what they got for their money in the way of naval defences, and maintained that the disaster was in no way
dne to that popular and fancy character of the cruise, to which Mr. Goschen suggested that it might to some extent be attri- buted. So Mr. Goschen's motion for further papers was agreed to, after a very desultory discussion by naval and other maritime authorities, in which hardly two persons were found to agree on any single point. The Admiralty snub the Court of Inquiry, inde- pendent men snub the Admiralty, and every naval officer snubs every other. The fog to which the loss of the ' Vanguard' was due was transferred to the House of Commons.
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