§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLgave notice, that on that day fortnight he would call the attention of the House to the contents of the Parliamentary Papers Nos. 271 and 272, of the present Session, respecting certain dockyard appointments and promotions, and should he find it necessary to found a substantive Motion on them, he would state its precise terms on Thursday next.
MR. STAFFORD saidSir, I have to make an appeal to the House, and though, perhaps, in doing so I am somewhat irregular, still I trust the House will not withhold its indulgence to permit me to make a request of the noble Lord the Member for the City of London, that he will afford every facility to the hon. Baronet the Member for Marylebone to bring forward the important Motion of which he has just given notice. And, in making this appeal, I feel I am justified by the occasion; for I may be permitted to observe that this is no common case, inasmuch as it affects not merely the Members of the late Board of Admiralty, but likewise those Members of the present Board who were also Members of the late Board. I trust then, Sir, that the hon. Member for Marylebone will give an early notice of the precise terms of the Motion which it is his intention to submit, and that when he does give that notice, that he will adhere to it. I hope I am not appealing in vain to the noble Lord; for he must see that it is due, as I had said, not merely to the late Board of Admiralty, but likewise to the Members of the present Board who were attached to the late one, that no uncertainty should hang over this question; and therefore that every facility should be afforded to the hon. Baronet for bringing forward his Motion.