§ VISCOUNT INGESTRE,after referring to the new dockyard regulations, requiring the men selected for certain offices to undergo an examination in mathematics, &c, inquired whether Mr. Wallis had been appointed assistant master shipwright at Portsmouth, and, if so, whether he underwent that examination?
§ MR. WARDhad stated, when he announced those regulations, that they were not intended to be applied so strictly as to debar the old and faithful servants of the Crown from that promotion which they merited; in fact, they were intended to have rather a prospective than a retroactive or even a present effect. The person alluded to had been thirty years in the service, had the highest testimonials from the officers under whom he served, and perhaps had taken a more active part in the construction of ships of war than any man now living; he ought not now to be debarred from promotion by the new regulations.