§ MR. FRASER MACKINTOSHasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Whether, in awarding to the clerk said to have been instrumental in detecting the frauds in the Sasine Office, Edinburgh, promotion on the occurrence of the first vacancy, it is the intention of the Treasury to promote him over the heads of the forty-nine clerks senior to him in the class; whether such promotion will not only be a direct reflection on the characters of every one of these clerks, but also deprive each of them of a step in the order of promotion, and permanently injure his prospects; whether it will not be at variance with the answer given by the Treasury to a Memorial presented to them by the clerks in January 1883; and, whether he will lay upon the Table a Copy of said Memorial, and of the Treasury's answer thereto?
§ MR. COURTNEYPromotion in this Department is not regulated by seniority, but by merit. The promotion, therefore, of ail officer of exceptional merit is neither a reflection on the character of his colleagues, nor an injury to their prospects of promotion; neither is the step in this case at variance with anything the Treasury has caused to be said to the clerks. There is no reason for laying the Papers on the Table.