The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-20 00:00:00

cried " Name " would sec that there was someihiug worse
than that. Every one was aware of the visit which was
made in June, 1832, to the dockyards in lleeonport and
Plymouth by the bon. gentleman in the Blaele le.mle. on
Wednesday, the 22ud of June, the honourable gentle-
man walked round the dockyard at Detroeport
with the two conservative candidates. H. stied at
'the Muster office, so that every man must pass
by him, and see with whom he was connected. 1 here wt)
a dinner given in the town: the two consere..rive candi-
dates were there ; the chairman of their eumn,ittee, their
solicitors., and election agents were there. It oas, in tact,
au election diuner given by the hon. gentleman : it resumed
that character. (Hear, hear.) If it was neer,. ity for the
hon. geutlemau to make this visit and supers ,ion of the
dockyard:, he ought to have goat) there as .. public ser-
vant, and kept himself free from all politic .1 and elec-
tioneering alliances. (Hear, hear.) lie you!-i feel it to
b.: his duty to iuquire whet:act the cspenses tit this dinner
to the conservative candidates and their agent. le.el ken
entered in the Admiralty contingencies and accounts,
because if they were to be found in the public ”ceetrts, it
was using and prostituting the public money tar political
and party purposes. (Seer, hear.) Now in Portsmouth
the ban. gentleman did not stand at the Mutt r-office sad
did not have the men pass him by. And the solution
which ho could arrive at for that dereliction of public duty
on the part of the hon. genth man was, that in Portsmouth
there wee no conservative caneidete. (heer.) e last refer-
ence which he would make in this matter wastes document,
dated the 18th of July, 1835, by which cautra,e.ng in the
disci:yam. was prohibited to that department of the govern-
ment wits which the lion. gentleman had bee °tweeted.
At that period there was also a chauge of gm fitment, and
it was probable that some similar occurrent.. took place,
and that in consequence of them 14i3 right
honourable friend (Sir C. Wood) then Lust Lord
of the Admiralty, wrote the following tercular :
" Admiralty, July 18, 1835.—Sir,—Represions having
been submitted to the Board of Admiraltrotteaktf attempts
having been made by the officers of the yards to influence
the workmen in the exercise of their elective franchise, and
my lords being mast desirous that no such tuterferenee
should take place, but that the men should be left at per-
fect liberty to give their votes us they may thinle proper, are
pleased to direct that it may be a standing order, the in-
fringement of which wi.l be visited with the highest dis-
pleasure of their lordships ; that in any future election for
the town or county, in or near to which the yard under
your superiutendence is situated, the exercise director bi-
dit eet of any influence ou the part of the sue 'Mr officers
to induce the workmen to vote is any way is to be carefully
avoided and, in order to take further precautions against
the appearance of such influence, no canvas,iag by any
candidate, or on the part of any candidate, is to be permit-
ted within the yards, excepting only of such voters as may
be resident in the yards. And my lords further direct that
you take the most effectual means of making this known,
both to all the officers and men ureder your
superintendence without loss of time. I am,
sir, your very bumble servant, C. Woou."—
(Cheers.) If the house granted him the committee he was
confident that he could prove still further that this circular
of 1833 had been also virtually cancelled, not by a stroke of
the pen' Out by act and deed. (Hear.) lle Lad now dis-
charged the duty he hail assumed. Ile had stet, d that he
did not bring the motion forward from any personal hostility
to the hon. gentleman. (Hear.) Ito had bc:m actuated
solely by a sense of public duty, and if the house granted the
committee, and the result of it should be to actiait the late
Board of Admiralty, be should be ready to ride it his error,
and would be happy to have it shown that the influence of a
great public department of the state had been properly
exercised, and its patronage honestly distributed. (Cheers.)
Sir G. I'ECIIELL seconded the motion.

Mr. STAFFORD, who on rising was cheered by his
friends, said that whatever the result of the motion of the
hon. member might be, he hail to tender him hie ackuow-
ledgmeuts for the spirit stud ten. of his ape• eh, and for
the courteous and candid way in which he de.it with the
subject since he had taken it up. (Hear.) Having said
thus much he must request the indulgence of the house if be
tonna it somewhat dittitult to tulle,/ the hon. baronet into
the various details which ho had laid before the house, and
to give teat entire uuswer to them which 1., -eould have
been enabled to do if the office of the Board of Admiralty
had been more at his command, although he trust eeknowe
Wee the courtesy of the right hon. gentleman op. °site (Sir
J. Graham) in facilitating his inquiries. He would first
reply to that part of the lion. baronet's speech, which was
of more importance to him than the other pens, because it
aftected him personally—he referred to the replies he
made to the question, put to him by the hon.
member for Giouces.er and the hon. member
fee Brighton. He admitted tee correctness of tee statement
of the hon. baronet Lath us to the question. put to him
and the answers which he pave to those qu.stious, and
he would now give the expl itiou of them—an explana-
tion which he might have offered after those answers had
hems given, but weich he never once thought of offering.
Whilst Secretary of the Admiralty it was his practice to go
every morning to the First Lord with such papers as he
thought of sufficient importance to get his iostructiona
upon. On the 2Gth of April, 1852, the Dake of Northum-
berland told him that the Surveyor of the N ivy was an-
noyed at the circular of the 19. h of April, by the issue of
which he conceived that a stigma had been cent upon his
character, and that he did not believe he would 'amain in
his situation unless that stigtut were remove i. His (Mr.
Stafford's) reply was that if teat were so he would, with the
sanction of the board, issue another circular and would do so
' on:that very day. Accordingly, when he went back to his
office, he drew up a rough draft of another circular, which
' was subeermently sent. At the; point, he would react to
the home- an extract of a letter which had beeu written by
Admiral Hyde Parker, a mutuel friend of Sr B. Walker
and his own, respecting a conversation which they had
on this subject. It tallied exactly with his own re-
collection of the matter, but he preferred to give
it in the words of Admiral Parker. He says:
"Castle Malwcod, April 11, 1853.-1 saw Mr. Sealed in
the presence of Sir Baldwin Walker, and Mr. Stafford
stated to him that he had not any intention, by the circular
sent to the dockyard, of casting cry reflection er in the su-
veyor. I think Mr. Stafford brought with him a written
memorandum, which he read, and Sir 11. Walker made
some objection to a p .rt of it, which I think Mr.
S afford altered. This memorandum %es :afterwards
sent to the doekyaree. Walker app.ated satis-
[Lid, and I then considered it settled, and des-
trused Sir Baldwin Walker's letter. This, I believe,
is the whole case. Touts very truly, HYDE PARKER."
Aud now the hoe. baronet asked him it he ever
saw the letter of Sir B. Walker. lie would not shrink
from that. To the best of his belief he never saw the
letter, he did not know that it was addressed to him ; and
in corroboration of what he said, he begged to call the at-
tention of the house to some answers which had been given
by Sir B. Walker before the Chatham election committee.
He says, in answer to a qttestiln respecting this letter, " I
afterwards discovered that the letter was not brought before
the board." "It was delivered to the senior Lord of the
Admiralty (Sir Hyde Parker), and not to the
Secretary." He is asked, "Do you knew what
beceme of the letter ?" He says, " I do not."
In September he received a letter from the hon. and gal-
lent member opposite, stating that he inten led to put a
question to him on this subject. He thereto% directed a
search to be made in the Record-office, in Weite hell, and
in Somerset-house, but no letter was found. lie knew no-
thing whatever of this letter, and he answered eccordingly.
Ile believed he replied " no." He was aware of no tender
of resignation ; he had no record of it in the Admiralty-
office ; and if there had been a tender of resignetion, which
was afterwards withdrawn, it must be in the ettiee. (Hear,
hear.) The party most implicated in this matter
was Sir Hyde Parker. Now, could any one i:nagine that
a person in the position of Sir H. Parker, and possessing
his nice sense of honour, would have allowed Lim to give
the answer Ise did, or, having given it, that lie would not
furnish him with the means of giving an explanation.
(Hear, hear.) Yet he had not received the least informa-
tion from Sir IL Parker. He (Sir H. Parker) thought that
the letter was sent to him by Sir B. Walker as a senior
officer and as a friend, and that it was entirely in his dis-
cretion whether he would bring forward the letter or not.
(Hear, hear.) In the exercise of that discretion, Sir H.
Parker did not send the letter to the Admiralty-office, and
he (Mr. Stafford) was therefore right in saying that he had
not tendered his resignation to the board. (Hear, hear.)
This was not all, for, on the 25th of Novetn'nr, the sur-
veyor addressed this formal and official letter to tee board :
" Somerset-house Nov. 25, le,i2.—Sir, havine observed in
the public papers that the Secretary of the Admiralty is re-
ported to have stated iu the House of Commons, on the
evening of the 23rd inst., in reply to cer'ain questions asked
by Admiral Berkeley and Sir George Nebel!, that there
was no correspondence with the Surveyor of the Navy on
the subject of the promotions in the dockyard., and also
that the Surveyor of the Navy had not tendered his resig-
nation, I desire, through you, to call the attention of my
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to letters from me,
bearieg date the 21st of April and the 10th of May last.
I have, &c., B. WALKER, Surveyor of the Navy. Augus-
tus Stafford, hem., M.P., Secretary to the Admiralty."
(Hear, hear,) The followeig letter was written in reply—
" Admiralty, Nev. 26,1`8,-32.—With reference to your letter
of the 25th inst., I am to acquaint you that your letters of
the 21st April and the 10th 0; May, retorted to by you, do
not appear to have reached the record departemat of this
office, and my lords therefore request you will transmit
copies of these letters. 117 comm old of their lordship, A.
STAFFORD.—Surveyor of the Navy." The surveeor's
answer was as follows:—" Somerset house, Nor.
With reference to your letter of the 26th inst., I beg to
acquaint you that since my communication of tee 2.ith inst.
I have been informed that my letter of the 21st of Apr%
addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, which was de-
livered to Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker,was cot brought before
the board; and, with reference to the letter of the 10th of
May, it was a communication addressed to the First Lord of
the Admiralty, and not to the Secretary.—l have, &e., B. W.
WALK ER.—Aug.Stalford,lisq.,M. P., Sec. to the Admiralty."
He did List know that he could have acted other-
wise than he did, and in the language of Sir
H. Parker he thought that this matter eras
"settled." (Hear, hear.) Now after the corropondence
had been called for in the house he confessed Le read the
letter of Sir B. Walker with considerable cut prise, because
it was au answer to a letter marked " private and conhden-
tial," which was sidle wed to him on the second of the
same month. (Hear, hear.) But having been referred to
• by the hon. baronet he felt bound in justice to
• himself to read that letter to the house. (Hear, hem)
"Admiralty, April 2, 1352.—Dear Sir Ballwin,-1 find
that greet dissatisfaction exists among my poll teal friends
us to the present arrangement of appointments —el eloper
tions in the dockyards, and there is a very gee:: impres-
sion that all these things ere dispensed au.on.: , t rlitteal
eepon its (leueliter nee -die as), ins ,much the . .• ems
no alternative but to resume the systemen whice pre-
, vious to September, 1819. I mud not tell you thet no one
considers the blame—if blame there be—to rest with you