THE SERGEANT-AT-ARMS. (Hansard, 6 April 1848)

§ MR. HUME

wished to move for a Select Committee to inquire into the duties of the Sergeant-at-Arms attending on this House, and the salary, emoluments, and patronage of the office, with a view to the regulation of the same before the occupation of the new Houses of Parliament. He was sorry to find that the office of Sergeant-at-Arms had been filled up, for he had hoped that the hon. Gentleman who had been so long in the service of the House, and who had always performed his duties so efficiently as the Deputy Sergeant, would have been appointed to the vacant office, and allowed to terminate his life as the Sergeant-at-Arms. He thought that the Lord Chamberlain ought not to have the nomination.

§ MR. STAFFORD

seconded the Motion, and stated that Mr. Clementson, the Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms, was unwilling to lose that opportunity of reminding the House of the length of his service. He had been Deputy Sergeant forty-four years. When Mr. Colman was appointed Sergeant, he was serving in the Peninsular war; and during that time Mr. Clementson performed the duties of the office. When Colonel Seymour was appointed, having been promised the office long before, Mr. Clementson for some time discharged the duties and received the emoluments of the office; and for the last year and a half the whole duty and responsibility had fallen upon him. It was with no wish to impugn the decision of those in whom the patronage of the place rested that Mr. Clementson wished upon that occasion to record the length of time he had had the honour and privilege of being a servant of that House. Mr. Clementson's friendship with his family began long before he could remember; and for that reason, as well as from a sense of his private worth, he had much pleasure in making this statement to the House. And how- 1409 ever much they might feel that the present Sergeant-at-Arms would perform his duties satisfactorily, yet they could say little more for his earnest success than that he might copy the example of the Deputy Sergeant; and, whatever motives had induced the appointment of Lord Charles 1410 Russell, yet both in that House and out of it there was a general feeling of respect and esteem for the officer who had been so long in their service.