§ MR. ANDREW STEUARTsaid, he would now beg to call the attention of the 1217 House to the appointment of Mr. Andrew Jopp to the office of Distributor of Stamps for the Aberdeen District. It was a somewhat remarkable fact that on the Motion for the adjournment of the House that evening two private Members should have felt it their duty to direct attention to recent cases of the exercise of patronage by the Treasury. It seemed to him to afford an extraordinary commentary upon the observations of the Chancellor of the Exchequer—in which he entirely concurred—in favour of competitive examination. The case which he had to lay before the House might also serve as a commentary on the sentiments expressed by the noble Viscount at the head of the Government who had said that any Government which based its strength upon patronage would soon descend into its grave "unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." The office to which he referred was worth about £800, and when Mr. Jopp, who was a young man remarkable for no peculiar qualifications, received his appointment, two gentlemen of mature and long experience in the same department of the Inland Revenue were candidates for it. Under ordinary circumstances he could hardly conceive it possible that they would have been passed over for a young man who was entirely unknown to the public. The county of Aberdeen had, however, been for six weeks or two months agitated by an election contest of peculiar bitterness, in the course of which there had been riots at three of the polling places, and several constables and other persons had been seriously injured. In that contest the person appointed was an active partisan; and, without saying that he had countenanced those riotous proceedings, they were certainly directed in favour of the persons with whom he was acting. His father was the head election agent of the district; and, putting these circumstances together, the public would certainly draw the inference that the appointment was given in acknowledgment of valuable services rendered. A Government was undoubtedly justified in rewarding its political adherents: but, taken in connection with the system of outrage which had prevailed at many Scotch elections, such an appointment as he had referred to was calculated to exercise a bad moral effect. He would not trouble the House with details, but he had received several letters complaining of violence at the hands of the mob, and that voters had not received that protection from the police which they were entitled to 1218 expect. He trusted the Secretary of State would be able to give good grounds for the appointment, otherwise he thought there were grave reasons why it ought to be cancelled.
SIR GEORGE LEWISstated that he was wholly ignorant of the circumstances mentioned by the hon. Member for Westmeath (Mr. Pollard-Urquhart); but, assuming the case to be as he had stated it, it merely exemplified the operation of the existing law, according to which any person not a member of the Established Church would not be eligible for a Trinity fellowship. The House had recently legislated on the subject of the University of Cambridge, and a Commission had sat by which important changes had been made in the constitution both of the Colleges and of the University, and it was quite open to any hon. Gentleman who considered the present state of the law inexpedient to bring forward a Motion for its Amendment; but he must say that he did not think anything was gained by merely calling attention to a case which illustrated the existing law.
With regard to the case of Mr. Baker, he regretted that the hon. Member for Swansea (Mr. Dillwyn) had made so many apologies for introducing the subject, for had he put the question directly, without approaching it with such circuity, he would have found him ready to return a direct answer, and to state all be knew of the case. The hon. Gentleman had said that in making the appointment he was influenced by favouritism—
§ MR. DILLWYNdenied that he had imputed any such motive to the right hon. Gentleman personally.
SIR GEORGE LEWISWell, then, some person not named had been influenced by favouritism. But, as far as he himself was concerned he was totally unconnected with Mr. Baker he had never heard his name till re commended to him for the office, and he was not quite sure that he had even seen him. About a year ago or less one of the twelve milling inspector ships fell vacant, and a memorial was forwarded to him, signed by Mr. Foster, Member for South Staffordshire, Mr. Hartley, the Mayor of Wolverhampton, and several other gentlemen owning iron-works, collieries, gas-works, and other large concerns, in which Mr. Baker was recommended for his ability and practical experience as a suitable person to fill the vacancy; and testimony was borne to the fact that he had for twenty years been engaged in opera- 1219 tions of a similar character, and was fully qualified for the position. The application was supported by Lord Hatherton, the Lord Lieutenant of the county; and, his knowledge of the gentleman being confined to these representations, he appointed him to be one of the inspectors of mines. The office was not one for which any examination was required; it was not one of those included in the terms of the Order in Council; but after Mr. Baker was appointed he thought that, as he had no personal knowledge of him, it would be desirable that he should undergo an examination. Accordingly the Civil Service Commissioners, on his communicating with them, requested Mr. Smyth, the Professor of mining and mineralogy in Government schools, to examine Mr. Baker, which he accordingly did, and made an unfavourable report, stating that Mr. Baker had no sufficient scientific knowledge of his employment. He subsequently ascertained that Mr. Baker was a person who rose from a rather humble station in life, and had not received any very perfect scientific or literary education; but for a great part of his life had been employed in mines, and possessed a good practical knowledge of his duties. But, remembering that neither the conditions of the office nor any previous statement made to Mr. Baker required that he should undergo an examination; and remembering, also, that he had been most highly recommended, he did not think he was justified in refusing to allow him to enter on the office, and to prove, if he could, by experience that he was fit to discharge its duties. Since July or August last he had been performing those duties, and he had not received any complaint with regard to him; on the contrary, his information, some of which was embodied in letters from persons of eminence, led him to believe that he had given satisfaction to the persons in whose district he was situated. In the event of any future vacancy in the mining inspectorships taking place during his term of office, he would take care that arrangements were made for securing a due test of the scientific attainments of the candidates; and, to show that he was not unfavourable to the principle of competitive examination, he might mention that he had in two instances required clerkships in the office of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to be filled up by candidates who had undergone that preliminary test of their ability.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, that he wished to recall the attention of the House to the observations that had already been made on the subject, the appointment of inspectors of mines and to express his conviction that it was exceedingly difficult for any Government to appoint a competent Board of Examiners—persons qualified to ascertain by competitive examination whether the inspectors proposed were able to perform the duties of the office efficiently. The difficulty consisted in this, that all the scientific knowledge in the world would never enable a man, unless he had practical knowledge, to form a correct judgment upon the state of a colliery or of the qualifications of an inspector of such works. So slight were the indications of danger from several causes, especially from the presence of gases and the condition of the atmosphere underground that, although a man might be able to conduct a most elaborate inquiry into the chemical components of earth, air, and water, he might be perfectly unable to form and act promptly on an opinion as to the presence of and the means necessary to avert danger in a colliery unless he had practical experience of such works; and he would be equally incompetent to judge whether due precautions had been taken and applied with promptitude when requisite. He trusted, therefore, that great care and attention would be bestowed upon the mode in which these appointments were provided for, and that no person would ever be appointed without its being ascertained that that person possessed a sufficient practical knowledge of the subject with which he had to deal.
THE LORD ADVOCATEsaid, that the objection of his hon. Friend (Mr. Steuart) to Mr. Jopp's appointment rested on two grounds—first, that there were other candidates better qualified; secondly, that there had been riots at the Aberdeenshire election. He did not think that either of these objections were tenable. The distributor of stamps was a collector of revenue. He required to be a person of respectability, and had to find security to a large amount. The office held by him was not one, so far as he (the Lord Advocate) was aware, which it was usual to fill by promotion, nor was it one to which the competitive examination system applied. His hon. Friend could not deny the respectability or position of Mr. Jopp, or his qualification for the office, and the appointment was clearly within the discretion of the Go- 1221 vernment. What complaint had his hon. Friend to make against him? On a former evening his hon. Friend asked him whether he had received any information in reference to the riots at the Aberdeenshire election, and whether any steps had been taken in consequence of those riots? He (Mr. Steuart) not only omitted to give him notice of that Question, but refused to do so. He told him that he had a question to ask him, but when he (the Lord Advocate) asked him what it was he would not tell him.
§ MR. ANDREW STEUARTsaid, he must beg the right hon. Gentleman's pardon. What he stated on the occasion referred to was, that he would not state exactly the information which he had received.
THE LORD ADVOCATEsaid, that if his hon. Friend had been a little more explicit, he might have telegraphed for information on the subject. He had, however, inquired since, and he found, with regret, that there had been riots of rather a serious description in Aberdeenshire,—one at Huntly, a place forty miles from Aberdeen, and one at Inverary, where one of the voters died. He believed, however, that the death in this case was caused by diptheria, and not directly by the riots. If his hon. Friend had given him earlier intimation of his question, he might have obtained more information, but he could assure him that as soon as intelligence of the riots reached the authorities, and before the hon. Gentleman made an inquiry on the subject, active measures were taken to prosecute the rioters, five of whom had already been committed. To connect Mr. Jopp with riots that took place at a distance of forty and sixteen miles from Aberdeen would require some stronger grounds than any put forward by his hon. Friend.
§ SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONEsaid, he had received a more distinct account of the not at Inverary than the Lord Advocate seemed to have obtained, and it was the opinion of everybody in the neighbourhood that the man died from the injuries he had received. The deceased was an an elder of the Church in the district to which he (Sir James Elphinstone) belonged; he was highly respected, and his death would be a great loss to the neighbourhood. He was seized upon by a brutal mob, and so much injured as to become ill immediately afterwards; and, though the immediate cause of death was said to be the contraction of the glands of the throat, 1222 yet one of the medical men who attended him, a person of great eminence, was ready to take his oath that the man died of the ill-treatment he had received.
§ MAJOR CUMMING BRUCEheld in his band an Aberdeen newspaper, which flatly contradicted the statement made in Aberdeen and repeated by the learned Lord Advocate, that the death of this person was caused by diptheria. Dr. Davidson, one of the first medical practitioners in Aberdeen, had addressed the following letter to the editor of the Aberdeen Journal:—
§ "Sir,—Having seen it stated in the Free Press, and reiterated in the Aberdeen Herald, that the death of George Murray, Dorlethen, was caused by diptheria, I consider it a public duty to declare that a post mortem examination of his body demonstrated that he did not die of diptheria.
§ "SAM. DAVIDSON, M.D.
§ "Meikle Wartle, Feb. 25, 1861.
§ Dr. Alexander Mitchell,who attended the deceased, also addressed the same journal in these words:—
§ "Sir,—Having had my attention directed to a paragraph in the Free Press and Aberdeen Herald, to the effect that Mr. George Murray, farmer, Dorlethen, died of diptheria, as medical attendant on that melancholy occasion I take this, the earliest, opportunity of stating that such report is utterly untrue."
§ "ALEXANDER MITCHELL, M.D.
§ "Old Rain, Feb. 25, 1861."
§ There could be no doubt that the man had died of the injuries he had received. There was a Bill before the House for disposing of seats and boroughs disfranchised on account of bribery and corruption; but, if bribery and corruption deserved such punishment, how much more should such brutal and unmanly conduct as was exhibited in this case by the party who started the Ministerial candidate in Aberdeenshire—and started him against his will—be exposed to the condemnation of Parliament. As to the appointment of Jopp, the son of the principal agent of the parties whose supporters had been guilty of this brutal intimidation, he could not characterize it otherwise than as a gross job.