§ Mr. Humeadverted to the recommendation of the Committee on Naval and Military Sinecures, that as vacancies occurred, they should not be filled up; the late Government had rigidly adhered to this rule, and he wished to know whether the present Ministers meant to adopt the same course. He made the inquiry because he saw that a new Captain of Sandown Castle had been recently appointed; the salary was only 40l. a-year, but he objected to it upon principle.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerbelieved that some sinecures had fallen in since the accession of the present Ministers, and he could answer that the same course would be pursued by them as by their predecessors. In appointing a naval officer to be Captain of Sandown Castle, the Duke of Wellington had fulfilled the intentions of the late Board of Treasury, that the post should not be occupied by a military officer; and while the jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports was continued, the Captain of Sandown Castle could not be dispensed with. The salary of 40l. was not sufficient to pay the expenses of the situation.