CAPTAIN GROSVENORsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Why it is that an Order in 206 Council, dated February 16, 1866, having directed an increase of pay to be given to Third Class Clerks in the Departments of the Principal Offices of the Admiralty, a section of that class, neither senior nor junior, but intermediate, is excluded from its operation; and, whether he is aware that the present Solicitor General has delivered an opinion in writing to the effect that such exclusion is unjustifiable?
§ MR. CHILDERSBy an Order in Council of the 16th of February, 1866, the salaries of the third class clerks at Somerset House, which had commenced at £90, rising annually by £10 to £300, were fixed at £100, rising for the first eight years by £10, and afterwards by £15. By permission of the Treasury, in addition to this improvement, which affected all the third class clerks, those who had then completed eight years' service were allowed such further addition to their salaries as would have been the result if such, a scale had been in force when they were appointed. The clerks with less than eight years' service petitioned that this second boon should be also granted to them. This was refused by the Duke of Somerset's Admiralty in April, 1866, and by the late Board in July, 1866, and February, 1868. The application was renewed in November, 1868, and left by the late Board for the consideration of their successors. With the application was an opinion by Mr. Coleridge, but not the case submitted to him. As it was my intention to undertake at once a revision of the Somerset House establishments, it was evidently not the moment to consider whether the decision made by both the former Boards should be reversed. That revision is now going on. The additional charge created by the Order in Council of the 16th of February, 1866, amounts to £2,043 9s. 4d. The annual cost of the additional boon solicited by the clerks with less than eight years' service would amount to £1,040.