The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-19 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 com-
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, 1149, which directs that "all reports
an dcorresp ondence on thesubject 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
promise. Parliament was dissolved, and the question
which the electors 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-
mittee 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
190,000/.

[LEFT SPEAKING.I

THE LONDON GAZETTE.

(THIS EVENING.)

WHITEHALL, APRIL 18.

The Queen has been pleased -to direct letters patent to
be passed under the Great Seal, granting the dignity of
a Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland unto Henry Holland, of Sandlebridge in the
county palatine of Chester, and of Lower Brook-street, in
the county of Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine, and one of
Her Majesty's Physicians in Ordinary, and to the heirs
male of his body lawfully begotten.