The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-08 00:00:00

required as a necessary qualification, previously to any
officer being entitled to receive an appointment as flag-
officer of the fleet. Of course, any regulation of an in-
variable description, such as that, must in its operation
be attended with cases of individual hardship. He re-
gretted that such should be the case. The noble earl
himself, and other noble lords who were in a similar con-
dition, might think that an alteration of the regulation
of 1827 was necessary, and they might have reason to de-
plore the operation of the existing rule; but their lordships
would perceive that, if such a regulation were of any ser-
vice at all, it must be invariably adhered to, for if once an
exception were made, and the invariable character of the
rule infringed upon, that would deprive it at once of all its
fairness and of all its merit. He had conferred with his
right hon. friend at the head of the Admiralty on this sub-
ject, and it was his opinion, as well as that of every
preceding Board of Admiralty since the year 1827, that
no mode more fair could be adopted to preserve efficiency
in the service than to require a reasonable qualification
on the part of the officer to be promoted. That being
the case, although he (the Earl of Aberdeen) agreed with
the noble earl that practically the regulation had ope-
rated hardly in individual instances, yet he could not
concur with him in thinking that the rule should in any
case be relaxed, because he believed that any such de-
parture from a fixed and unalterable character would im-
pair the efficiency of the service, and be attended with
consequences which would put an end to that fair and
equitable proceeding which had hitherto characterised
the conduct of the Crown in the promotion of officers in
the navy. Therefore he could only say that, after the
most full inquiries and examination of the subject,
he had come to the same decision at which all preceding
Boards of Admiralty had arrived—that, upon the whole,
the present system, although attended with individual
cases of hardship, nevertheless was the most just and the
most advantageous to the service that had been proposed.
Lord COLCHESTER said, that no doubt the subj ct
to which his noble friend had called the attention of
their lordships was one of great difficulty. The noble
earl at the head of the Government had said that the
regulation of 1827 was made by Sir George Cockburn
when he was at the Board of Admiralty, and that it had
never since been altered. Now, he begged to remind
the noble earl that two orders in Council had been sub-
sequently issued on the same subject—one in 1840, and
the other in 1851. In the order in Council of the 10th of
Aug., 1840, it was stated "that so much of the order in
Council of the 30th of June, 1827, as related to the promo-
tion of captains to flag officers should be rescinded, and that
those officers who had been placed on the retired list under
that order in Council should be placed on the list
of fla/, officers according to their seniority as captains.
He believed that this alteration of the regulation of
1827 was made in consequence of the case of Captain
Debenham, which was considered at the time to be one
great hardship. Under the order in Council of 1840 all
captains, who were ready to serve, whether they served
or not, were put on a level with rear-admirals in respect
to their pay. Under the order in Council of 1851 the
country was deprived of the advantage of the service of
those officers who had been placed on the reserved list,
and who might have been called into active service.
(The noble lord made some observations in respect to
the order in Council of 1851, but they were not audible
in the gallery.)
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said, it was essen-
tial to the effective power of the service, and that the
public interest required it, that every captain having
the qualification and rank of admiral should have served
for a certain /period as commander of a ship in her
Majesty's service. Such was the rule, and no doubt it
was a just rule ; still, he thought it very desirable to
reconsider the details of the Order in Council. For,
certainly, there was something contrary to all reason in
saying, that an officer should be considered qualified for
a flag after having served six years in one of her Ma-
jesty's rated ships, yet that he should not be considered
qualified' by having served in another ship, where equal
or even superior experience might have been acquired.
The service in her Majesty's rated ships was a service
before the discovery of steam and before large ships were
built. Therefore, practically, the orders in Council
hail a tendency, as they now existed, not of giving
to the country those men who were best acquainted with
the service as it at present was, but men who were ac-
quainted with the service as it used to be. It appeared
to him, therefore, that it was most desirable the details
of the rule should be reconsidered. The noble earl had
stated, that the rule was established in 1827, at the sug-
gestion of Sir George Cockburn. No man was held in
higher esteem, or more honoured and deservedly so, than
Sir George Cockburn, by the whole of the British navy,
but their lordships must consider the difference of the
naval service in the year 1827, and of the same service
in the year 1853. In 1827 not many years had elapsed
since the country had been involved in a long and ardu-
ous war, and when, therefore, captains in the navy were
not required to wait long for promotion ; but now, at
the end of 40 years of peace, the rule was, exclusion
from promotion, and not admission. This was a further

reason why he thought it highly desirable that the rule
should be reconsidered in its details. He recollected
most distinctly a claim made on behalf of her Majesty
by Sir Robert Pdel in 1346, to a power of promoting
any officer of any rank in the navy. That was a power
which should never be confided to the Admiralty. It
should not be for the Admiralty to make any such ex-
traordinary promotion. That power had been most
rightly reserved to the Crown, and a case might arise
when her Majesty might most wisely exercise that
power by an order in council. There would be an ample
guarantee against the power being improperly exer-
cised. No order in council could take place without
the whole merits of the officer to be promoted being
brought before the Cabinet. It would thus become a

public measure, and one of the highest importance, and.
which it would be the duty of the Minister to defend in
Parliament. The country would thereby be perfectly
satisfied that such a measure would not be adopted un-
less under very peculiar circumstances. He thought it
most desirable to guard against the introduction, or
rather the extension, of anything like party feeling in
the selection of any officer for any employment in the
service of the Crown. It was hardly too strong an ex-
pression when he stated that he thought it a public crime
in a man at the head of the naval department, or at the
head of the army, when, from private, personal, or
party motives, he promoted a person over the head of
another who was deserving of the appointment. It was
his first duty to look around and select from every de-
partment the fittest man he could find. That was the
true secret of success in war. It was, indeed, the true
secret of success in civil affairs ; but in war it was essen-
tial to success. Let them look around ;for they would
invariably find that, whatever might be the general
merits of individuals—whatever might be their ability or
their zeal—all great things in civil life, and even more,
perhaps, all great things in war, were performed by some
few, some very few men of superior ability and superior
genius ; and there could not be a greater or a more
valuable talent in a man placed in the situation of his
noble friend opposite, or, yet more, placed in the direc-
tion of the Admiralt, or of the army, than that of dis-
covering the ability by which -great things might be
done.

After a few words from Earl WALDEGRAVE,
which did not reach the gallery, the motion was with-
drawn, and their lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-(YESTERDAY.)

The SPEAKER took the chair shortly before 4 o'clock,

PRIVATE BILLS.

A. large number of private bills were introduced by
Mr. BROTHERTON, and read a first time.
The following bills were read a second time, and
ordered to be committed :—Ardrossan and Glasgow
amid South-Western Railways; Bacup Improvement ;
Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland Junction Railway
and Branch ; Blyth and Tyne Railway ; Bolton Gas ;
Brighton, Hove, and Preston Waterworks ; Cannock
Railway ; Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway and Dock ;
Clyde Navigation ;'Cork and Bandon Railway ; Don-
caster Cemetery ; East Lancashire Railway ; gist Lan-
cashire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and Manchester and
Southport Railways ; East London Waterworks ; En-
niskillen Waterworks ; Gloucester Water ; Hastings and
St. Leonard's Gas; Hull Cemetery ; Kingston-upon-
Hull Docks ; Kingston-upon-Hull Improvement ; Law
Life. Assurance ;Society ; Leeds New GIS ; Liverpool
Improvement ; Liverpool Police Superannuation Fund ;
Liverpool Sanitary and other Local Acts; Llandudno
Improvement ; London Life Association ; Middleton
Gas;_ Newport Improvement; North London Rail-
way ; Norwich Equitable Fire Assurance Company ;
Nottingham Waterworks ; Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton (Stratford-upon-Avon and Stourbridge
Branches) ; Radcliffe and Pilkington Gas ; Ramsbot-
tom Gas ; Rochdale and Burnley Roads ; Rossen-
dale Union Gas ; Shrewsbury and Chester Railway ;
Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway (Stations) ; South-
port Waterworks ; Staffard New Gas ; Stockton and
Cleveland Union Railway ; Swansea Vale Railway ;
Towy Vale Railway;, Warrington Improvement and
Market; Wellington (Salop} rinprovement ; Wey.
mouth and Melcombe Regis Markets and Pier ; White.
haven, Cleator, and Egremont Railway ; Whitehaven
Junction Railway ; York and North Midland Railway.