§ MR. EYKYNsaid, he wished to ask, If the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have come to any decision on the organization in regard to the improvement, pay, and position of Naval Chaplains; and, whether it is the intention of the Board of Admiralty to appoint commissioned Presbyterian and Roman Catholic Chaplains for the service of Her Majesty's Fleet at home and abroad?
LORD HENRY LENNOX,in reply, said, that in pursuance of a promise given by the First Lord of the Admiralty an inquiry had been made as to the position of navy chaplains, and the Board of Admiralty were unanimously agreed that these gentlemen had a perfect right to be placed on the same footing with their brethren in the army, both as to pay and position; but the Government had not been able, in the present financial year, to make arrangements for carrying this into effect. In reply to the second part of the Question, he must inform the hon. Gentleman that it was not the intention of the Government to grant commissions to Roman Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains 425 for the service of Her Majesty's Fleet; but they desired to improve the pay and position of the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian chaplains at Sheerness, Chatham, and Portsmouth, and also to entitle them to the receipt of pensions. The same financial reason to which he had already alluded had prevented this being done at present.