§ MR. CUNINGHAME GRAHAM (Lanark, N. W.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with regard to the case of a retired officer of the Royal Engineers, who presented on or about 10th July last, through the Home Office, a Petition of Grace to Her Majesty the Queen, asking that £30 a year be granted by reason of his 31½ years' service and that of his father, a Major-General Royal, and for certain other detailed reasons set forth in the Petition, if he can explain why the Home Secretary did not lay that Petition before Her Majesty, but transmitted it to the War Office to be dealt with; whether such a course is constitutional and according to Statute; and whether he will lay upon the Table of the House a copy of this Petition?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThis Petition was laid before the Queen by the Secretary of State for War, to whom it was forwarded by the Home Office in the ordinary course, as relating to matters within his jurisdiction. Constitutionally, the functions of the Secretaries of State are interchangeable, and there was nothing irregular in the way this Petition was dealt with. I have no objection to laying it on the Table of the House.