§ MR. BROADHURSTI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether the Admiralty Authorities have introduced the character-note system in respect to the employment of new hands in Her Majesty's Dockyards; and whether a man named Sullivan (a member of the Steam Engine Makers' Society) was recently discharged from Chatham Dockyard solely on account of a character-note from his late employers?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingIt has been found necessary to introduce the character-note system in connection with the employment of new hands, in consequence of men having been entered at the dockyards who subsequently were found to have bad characters, and in one instance to have been convicted of theft. A man named Sullivan was entered on 11th March at Chatham as a fitter on probation, and was warned at the time that his retention was dependent upon the character that might be given by his late employers. It was found that Sullivan had left the service of his late employers without completing his apprenticeship. He was therefore discharged.