§ MR. EASTWICKasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether any communication has been received from the Trinity House relative to the dismissal of Mr. Beazeley?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEreplied that he was not responsible for either the engagement or dismissal of 459 any gentleman in the employment of the Trinity House; but the Deputy Master of the Trinity House being aware that the Question had been addressed to the Board of Trade by the hon. Member, had sent him (Mr. C. Fortescue) a letter, the substance of which was as follows:—Mr. Beazeley had been removed from the service of the Trinity House. He had been employed as assistant to the engineer, and in the course of last year he delivered to the Institution of Civil Engineers a lecture on the subject of fog signals. His official superior objected to Mr. Beazeley's using data which could only be obtained from documents belonging to the Trinity House, and to his putting forward views, the importance of which was solely due to the fact that he was on the Trinity House staff. Nothing further was heard of Mr. Beazeley till a copy of his second lecture at the United Service Institution was forwarded by him to the Deputy Master, without any reference to what had previously occurred. Under these circumstances, and looking to the terms on which Mr. Beazeley stood in the office, the Board felt that there was only one course to be pursued. Mr. Beazeley having only a weekly tenure of office, the Board invited him to name a reasonable time within which he might expect to obtain employment elsewhere; but as he did not do this, they were obliged to give him two months' notice.