§ CAPTAIN PIMasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether it is true that the appointment of Chief Naval Instructor on board Her Majesty's ship "Britannia" has been filled up by the appointment of a young clergyman, the Rev. J. Aldous, who took the degree of nineteenth wrangler at Cambridge in 1872, and has since filled the post of mathematical sixth master at Shrewsbury School; whether it can be the case that no one was eligible to fill this post out of the thirty-six chaplains and naval 1143 instructors and thirty naval instructors now on the Navy List; whether it is true that exceptional pay and rank has been given to Mr. Aldous; and, whether he will have any objection to state what terms have been made with Mr. Aldous?
§ MR. HUNT,in reply, said, he had filled up the vacancy in this appointment upon his own responsibility, and because he thought it conducive to the public interests. He must decline to go into the question of the comparative merits of Mr. Aldous and of the other gentlemen alluded to by the hon. and gallant Member. To do so would be highly invidious. Mr. Aldous had the same rank and pay as his predecessors, and had been placed by the Treasury under the fourth section of the Superannuation Act.