§ MR. DALGLISHsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Mr. Barber, the British Consul at Naples, has received any promotion, or other mark of approbation, from Government for his great kindness to the English engineers of the Cagliari while imprisoned, and for his successful exertions in procuring their release.
MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDsaid, that he was so sensible of the zeal and intelligence which had been displayed by Mr. Barber that he did not wish factiously to criticise the terms of the question put to him by the hon. Member for Glasgow; but he must say that when the hon. Gentleman spoke of the successful exertions of Mr. Barber in procuring the release of the engineers he attributed to that Gentleman a monopoly remembering the exertions and ability of Mr. Lyons, he (Mr. FitzGerald) should not be inclined to admit. Passing that by, he might say that no one had been more sensible of the merits of Mr. Barber, or of the value of his services, than were Her Majesty's Government, nor had any one been more 1501 anxious to give to him at the proper time a fitting recompense for his services. That was shown by the fact that when the Cagliari was to be restored to Sardinia Her Majesty's Government appointed Mr. Barber, although not a naval officer, to perform that duty, because it would place him in a position to receive the personal thanks of the Sardinian Government, and of the Sovereign of that country. At the first moment they had it in their power the Government expressed to Mr. Barber, their approbation of his services, and within the last few days, subject to the approval of Her Majesty, they had appointed him to a post which, amid other advantages, was of double the value of that which he had hitherto held in Naples.