Mr. PIKE. I desire to say that I was content to let this measure pass subsilentio, simply voting against it, until the inquiry of the Gentfrom Illinois [Mr. FARNsworth] was made, for the purpose of developing the opinions of the committee. Mr. Forbes, who is well known as a merchant of great enterprise as well of great generosity of character, was led into this undertaking to construct the Idaho by the very generous idea of surpassing by his individual effortall the previous exertions of the Navy Dept to produce valuable, and especially fast, ships of war. In order to accomplish that purpose he entered into this contract, and, as I believe, with no expectation of making money out of it, for the contract itself was an unusually hard one. He proposed for the small sum of $600,000 to o: a ship of some 2,005 hun red or 3,000 tons, which should do what no naval ship before did, make 15 knots an hour for 24 consecutive hours in the sea way, with all her armament on board. That was something which never had been done on either side of the Atlantic. But he was led to make the proposition by theingenious theories and fertile suggestions of his engineer, a gentleman well known to the public, Mr. Dickinson. In pursuance of that contract Mr. Forbes has already expended some 900,000 dollars. He has received from the Government $550,000; losing, as I believe, over 350,000 dollars by his enter prising exertions. Now, for one I was entirely willing to say to Mr. Forbes, “You have already lost enough, and the Government has lost enough by this experiment; we will not call upon you to return any portion of this $550,000, but we will take the vessel and call the matter square.” According to the terms of the contract he would be obliged to refund this $550,0take back the ship, for she fulfills no one of the conditions of the contract; and she is practically of but small value to the government. The Government estimates that she is worth between one and 200,000 dollars for their purposes.