§ MR. O'BEIRNEsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether he will place upon the Table of the House the Case submitted in 1862 to the Law Officers of the Crown, with their Opinion thereon, upon the Claims of the Captains on the Reserved List?
SIR JOHN HAYsaid, that, in the unavoidable absence of his right hon. Friend the First Lord of the Admiralty, he would reply to the Question. He had to inform the hon. Gentleman that it would be contrary to all precedent to lay on the table Copies of the confidential communications which might have passed between the Law Officers of the Crown and the Heads of Public Departments. The case of those Reserved Captains had been carefully considered, as soon as the present Government came into Office. Nearly half of them, thirty-seven, had served one year at sea and so fulfilled the conditions which enabled the Board of Admiralty to grant the advantages for which 522 they asked; but the rest of them had not served a year at sea, and the Admiralty were therefore unable to pursue a similar course in their case.