§ MR. BAILLIE COCHRANEsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether he can hold out any hopes that the Government will re-consider the Order in Council of 1851 relating to the Reserved Captains; and, whether justice will at last be done in respect to pay and promotion to those meritorious and distinguished Officers who, relying on a fair interpretation of such Order in Council, were induced to allow their names to be placed on the Reserved List of Captains?
MR. CORRYsaid, in reply, that his hon. Friend's Question resembled the peroration of an argumentative speech, and he had some difficulty in answering it, because he should be out of order in attempting any argument in reply. He trusted, however, that he might be allowed to express his dissent from his hon. Friend's conclusions. In point of strict justice these Officers had no real case. That was the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown to whom the case was referred in 1862, and in that opinion he (Mr. Corry) entirely concurred. At the same time, it was undoubtedly true that the Order in Council, or that part of it which established the Reserved List of Captains, was very vaguely worded, and he thought that a portion of those Officers had a fair claim to indulgence. He meant that portion of the Reserved Captains who, before their promotion to that rank, had served as Commanders the time required by the regulations to entitle them to active rank. He had made a communi- 166 cation to that effect to the Treasury, and was happy to say that an arrangement had been made which would give to that portion, and that portion only, those Officers certain advantages as regarded rank and pay, some immediately and the rest prospectively.