Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Hospitals, Railways, Steamships, Military Technology, Engineering, War, Pollution, Environmentalism, Manufactories, Politics, Government

    Notes the debate in the House of Lords on the 'new military hospitals, said to be constructed on the "glass and glare" principle', and later discusses a debate on 'Railway Mismanagement', a problem that Punch thinks should be put before a 'British Jury'. Proceeds to an extended discussion of 'Navy Estimates' in which Clarence E Paget revealed the number of Britain's ironclads and 'iron-plated Line-of-Battle Ships' and promised that the nation will have 'Four Ships of tremendous speed', 'a "really" sea-going vessel [...] on Captain Cowper Coles's principle', and 'new Docks for the new set of large armour-clad ships'. Later reports arguments, criticism, and praise for the government's ship designer, Edward J Reed, and support for the Royal Sovereign, 'which is adapted to Cowper-Coles's plan, and is stated to be the best ship in the navy'. (105) Also reports on Robert Montagu's attempt to 'carry a measure for protecting all the Rivers of England' from pollution, an attempt thwarted by John Bright who insisted that 'better the fish die than the manufacturers' (106).