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

THE LATE BOARD OF ADMIRALTY.

Sir BENJAMIN HALL then rose to call the atten-
tion of the house to the contents of three Parliamentary
Papers, Nos. 67, 271, and 272, of the present session,
intituled Dockyards, Dockyard Appointments, and
Dockyard Promotions, and to move that a select corn-
mittee be appointed, to inquire into the circumstances
under which a "circular sent to the superintendent of
her Majesty's Dockyards, dated September 26th, 1849,"
was cancelled on the 19th day of April 1852, without
any order or minute of the Board : also to inquire into
the circumstances under which a letter addressed by Sir B.
Walker to Mr. Stafford, as Secretary to the Admiralty,
in which letter Sir B. Walker tendered his resignation
as Surveyor of the Navy, was withheld from the board.
Also, into the circumstances connected with the appoint-
ment of Mr. James Wells as master smith in the dock-
yard at Portsmouth, the subsequent cancelling thereof,
and the appointment of Mr. George Cotsell in his stead :
And generally into the exercise of the influence and
patronage of the Admiralty in the Dockyards and Go-
vernment departments connected with the several Par-
liamentary boroughs, since the 19th day of April, 1852,
at which date a circular was issued from the Admiralty,
signed by the secretary, cancelling their lordships' order
of the 26th September,lB49, which directs that " all reports
and correspondence on the subject of vacancies, promotions,
or changes of the officers and workmen of the dockyard,
shall be forwarded through the Surveyor's department ;"
and ordering that "in future such reports and correspon-
dence be transmitted direct to the Secretary of the Ad-
miralty." It was important that the patronage of public
departments should be distributed with impartiality, and
inasmuch as there was reason to suppose that this rule
was departed from by the late Board of Admiralty, he
felt it to be his duty to bring the matter under the at-
tention of the house. It was hardly necessary for him
to remind the house of the circumstances under which Lord
Derby took office. That noble lord promised to dissolve
the Parliament at the end of the then session, and he
was bound to say the noble lord studiously fulfilled his
premise. Parliament was dissolved, and the question
which the elee.ors were to decide was not whether free
trade should be continued, for that had long previously
been settled, but whether the noble lord and his
Government should be allowed to continue in
office and conduct the affairs of the country upon
conservative principles. Upon the result of that elec-
tion, then, was to depend the fate of the Government,
and it had come out in evidence before an election com-

mittce that the patronage of the Admiralty was used by
the late Board for the purpose of influencing the
result of the election. Now, in 1847, a circular was
issued by the Admiralty, stating that promotions in the
dockyards in future would be regulated by merit only;
but for the purpose of serving the turn of the late
Government at the election for Chatham the Board of
Admiralty of the day set this circular aside, in order to
promote parties in the Dockyard who were not entitled
to such. promotion by merit, but who found favour in
the eyes of the Board of Admiralty, because they were
in possession of the elective franchise. In 1849 a second
circular was issued by the Board of Admiralty, making
the Surveyor of the Navy responsible for promotions,
and the filling up of vacancies, and the result of that
course Was a saving to the country of no less than
190,0001. No less than four promotions hadgdtiaidknaeetnmelrNavicaasel.
The great orator and advocate of Sir
in consequence.
Frederick Smith was sent to Portsmouth. Smile
having
ts he Sheerness,
hav-
inges,
sent from Sheerness pwl foruonolip,firesht o
Chatham.t}i the Coatinsde Conservative v
ws e
hn
ut
had friends r
uf atbi
him,Chatham, was
se
sent from Woolwich to
to Wool-
wich ; and Thomas i3ailey was
iced in a.tof.dellndv o
Sheerness, vice Forbes, Bailey having been an active
committee man of the Conservative
candidate for Wool-
wich, and his brother hay'
man at the last election. having plumped for that gentle.
saying that this patronage hade was, therefore, right in
politi-
cal purposes. (Hear.) °H
been extended for
ing how the influence of thee should conclude by inquir-
ing
in the dockyards 2 A Admiralty had been exer-
the hon, gentleman—and system had been pursued by
at the gate of the d a very effective one, standing
time-tickets, along withYl' where the men delivered their
the Conservative candidate, in
order that all the men
might know who were the parties
that were associated wi •th the lion. gentleman. (Hear,
hear.) That took place at Deptford. Every one was
aware of the visit which was made in June, 1852,
to the dockyards in Devonport and Plymouth by
the honourable gentleman in the Black Eagle. On
Wednesday, the 22d of Jai?, the honourable gentleman
walked round the dockyard at Devonport with the two
Conservative candidates. He stood at the Muster-
office, so that every man must pass by him, and see with
whom he was connected. There was a dinner given in
the town : the two Conservative candidates were there „-
the chairman of their committee, their solicitors, and
election agents were there. It was, in fact, an election
dinner given by the lion. gentleman : it assumed that
character. (Hear, hear.) If it was necessary for- the
lion. gentleman to make this visit and supervision of the
dockyards, he ought to have gone there as a public ser-
vant, and kept himself from all political electioneering
alliances. (Hear, hear.) He would feel it to be his
duty to inquire whether the expenses of this dinner to
the Conservative candidates and their agents had been
entered in the Admiralty contingencies and accounts,
because if they were to be found in the public ac-
counts, it was using and prostituting the public
L money for political and party purposes. (Hear, hear.)
Now in Portsmouth the honourable gentleman did
I not stand at the Muster-office and did not have the