§ SIR GEORGE TYLERsaid, he had seen in The Times of that morning a statement with respect to the appointment of surgeons and assistant-surgeons to the fleet now in the Baltic which appeared to be contrary to that which the hon. and gallant Gentleman opposite (Admiral Berkeley) had made the other night, and to impugn the veracity of the hon. and gallant Admiral's statement. He (Sir G. Tyler) wished, therefore, to give an opportunity to the hon. and gallant Admiral of making a reply, and setting himself right with the House and the country.
ADMIRAL BERKELEYsaid, the House would perhaps allow him to explain what it was he had stated in answer to the hon. and gallant Member for Chippenham (Colonel Boldero) who first brought the subject forward. The hon. and gallant Gentleman, having remarked that last year there were a great number of vacancies in the medical department of the fleets sent to the Baltic and Black Sea, he (Admiral Berkeley) had thought it his duty to contradict that statement. He accordingly stated that there was a proper allowance of medical men in both of those fleets, and that he had never heard any complaint upon the subject before. An anonymous letter in The Times endeavoured to fix him with having stated that there were no vacancies at present. That, however, was a mere anonymous assertion, and whenever such an assertion was made in the proper place in that House he would 1628 endeavour to reply to it. Throughout his private and public life he had endeavoured to treat all anonymous correspondence with the contempt due to cowardice, and he should always continue to act in the same manner.