The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-13 00:00:00

SIR JAMES GRAHAM AND SIR HARRY

NEALE.

COPIES OF AN ADDRESS PRESENTED TO SIR HARRY
NEALE, BART., BY HIS SUPPORTERS IN THE BO-
ROUGH OF LYMINGTON,-A ND OF SIR HARRY'S ANSWER
THERETO, WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPON-
DENCE REFERRED TO IN THE LATTER.
(Copy of the Address.)
TO ADMIRAL SIR HARRY NEALE, BART., &C.,
Sir,—We, the undersigned electors of the borough
of Lytuington, beg to offer you our expressions of
high gratification at your independent and honourable cc:,
duct, in preferring the retention of your seat in Parlia-
ment for this borough to the naval command at Ports-
mouth, when so unprecedented an alternative was required
by the First Lord of the Admiralty ; and we cannot re-
frain from expressing our astonishment that such a
condition should have been required, knowing that the
command was first offered to you without such restriction,
and that appointments, both in the army and the navy,
are held by other Members of the present Parliament.
Trusting that it may be very long ere the ties which
now so happily connect us shall be dissolved,
We have the honour to he, Sir, your sincere and faithful
FRIENDS AND CONSTITUENTS.
Town-hall, Lymington, Jan. 31.

(Copy of Sir Harry's Answer.)
TO THE ELECTORS WHO SUPPORTED SIR HARRY NEALE

AT THE LAST GENERAL ELECTION.

Gentlemen,—l have received with great gratification
the address with which you have honoured me, conveying,
in terms highly flattering, your sentiments upon the occa-
sion of my having refused to accept the command at
Portsmouth. I herewith transmit copies of two letters
from Sir James Graham, with an extract from my reply
which will enable you to form a just estimation of the
whole proceeding.
I forcibly feel that I should not have merited your con-
fidence or esteem had I been capable of acceding to such a
humiliating condition as the letter. of the 11th of January
conveyed. Had I acted otherwise than I have done, I
should not only have injured my professional reputation,
but I should have evinced, what is foreign to every feeling
I possess, a marked disregard of the obligation I owe to you
as my constituents, through whose support and through
whose exertions I have bee❑ returned to Parliament.
I can never cease to feel, that from the first moment of
Sir James Graham's offer and my acceptance of the
command at Portsmouth in August, 1882, whatever
measures he had in contemplation of the description he
has now at the very latest moment disclosed, ought not
in candour and fair treatment, to have been withheld from
my knowledge. With a❑ affectation of giving me a free
choice of a command which he had previously and un-
conditionally promised, lie has only afforded me the op-
portunity of an unavoidable refusal, except with
loss of reputation. Had Sir James Graham, in common
justice, postponed the operation of his new regulation
until the command became vacant again, he would not
have placed Portsmouth in a worse condition than other
stations or commands are in at this moment in England
and Ireland, where officers of the army and navy are dis-
charging their respective dirties, and at the same time re-
taining their seats in Parliament.

Sir James Graham has fully expressed to me that he
" should scorn to make the employment of naval 'officers
in the least dependent o❑ their political attachments or
conduct."

Sir James Graham considers that " a seat in Parlia-
ment is incompatible with a command at Portsmouth,"
and he arrives at that conclusion from " a decided opi-
nion that the adequate discharge of the double duty is
itn po.sible."

To this, in the first instance, I reply, that Sir James
Graham has no right to assume any guardianship over
the House of Commons: and that no First Lord of the
Admiralty has ever before taken that office upon himself.
If my constituents are satisfied with rae, I feel that Sir
James Graham has no right to take into consideration
my non-attendance in the House of Commons.

There can be no question but that Sir James Graham,
in virtue of his situation, should superintend and control
the duties of a Commander-in-Chief ; and he must per-
fectly well know, that should a Commander, or any officer,
in the exercise of his Parliamentary privilege, resolve,
without the concurrence of the Board of Admiralty, to
attend his duty in the House of Commons to the detriment
of the public service, the Board has a justifiable remedy in
the anointment of another officer. And in the event of
a call of the House, there is no instance, I believe, of
leave of absence having been refused by the House to an
officer in employ w.,en his attendance has been repreqin'ed
by his Mijesty's Ministers to be detrimental to the naval
service or to any other public service. The question,
there o-e, of incompatibility is not tenable upon any plea
of nt c.ssity, however convenient its adoption might have
pros,: d in my case.
As a contrary opinion, however, is maintained and
acted upon by Sir James Graham, I should like to under-
stand upon what diversity of opinion and principle it is
that a Member of Parliament may hold an important civil
situation in Scotland or Ireland, when is is equally cer-
tain that " the adequate discharge of the double duty is
impossible ?" Is it not plain, that a seat in Parliament is
equally incompatible will a civil office in Ireland as it is
with a command at Portsmouth ? This regulation, if
founded on principle, must affect those officers in com-
mand in Ireland who are Members of Parliament; in
short, it must affect every individual holding any civil
situation or command within the jurisdiction of the House
of Commons, who are Members of Parliament, and are at
such a distance from the metropolis as to be unable to at-
tend to the double duty—i. e., whet, being subject to the
authority of a call of the House, are in consequence
brought within the sphere of incompatibility.
This new regulation having been brought to bear upon
me by a retrograde movement from the 11th of January,
1833, to the 24th of August, 1332, will now perhaps die
a natural death. I shall then be very well satisfied, and
only wish it a speedy exit.
1 have deemed it expedient, in justification of myself,
as your representative in Parliament, to put you in posses-
sion of my sentiments, and of the ground upon which I
have been deprived of the command at Portsmouth. With
every feeling of gratitude for the kind and friendly manner
with which you have received me,
I have the honour to be, &c.,
Walhampton, Feb. 2.