HC Deb 08 June 1868 vol 192 cc1222-3
CAPTAIN MACKINNON

said, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, If the statement contained in an article in the Army and Navy Gazette of May 16th, 1868, that the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown in 1862 on the F. G. Captains' Reserved List was formed from a falsified Copy of the Order in Council of 1851 which governed that List, and that such alteration in the wording of the Order in Council mis-stated the case as laid before the Law Officers of the Crown and caused an adverse judgment to their claims, is true; and, if so, does he intend to persist in refusing the claims of those Officers?

MR. CORRY

Sir, I have myself examined the Papers laid before the Law Officers in 1862, and I can say that there is not the slightest foundation for the statement that the opinion of the Law Officers was formed on a falsified copy of the Order in Council of 1851. On the contrary, the Order in Council of 1851 was laid in extenso before the Law Officers verbatim et literatim, and I cannot but express my surprise that any body of officers could have imagined that the Admiralty would have resorted to so unworthy an expedient as that referred to in the Question of my hon. and gallant Friend.