HL Deb 11 March 1875 vol 222 cc1593-5

The letter from Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., tendering his resignation of his Office of Clerk of the Parliaments, considered (according to Order).

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND

My Lords, I have now the opportunity, which I accept with great pleasure, of paying my tribute of respect and regard to Sir John Lefevre, and to express my regret at the course which he has felt bound to adopt, of resigning the office of Clerk of the Parliaments which he has so long held. I cannot refrain from saying that I consider I have an hereditary right to express the feeling of respect and regard which I entertain for him, because I know that it was also entertained by my late Father, who was associated on many occasions, both in public and in private, with Sir John Lefevre. No man stood higher than he did in my Father's estimation. After what was said the other evening, I do not think that I should be doing right in trespassing any further on your Lordships' time—the more particularly as the subject is one on which the utmost unanimity exists. I beg to move the following Resolution:— That this House has received with sincere concern the resignation of Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., of the office of Clerk of the Parliaments on account of recent indisposition and his advancing age, and they think it right to record the just sense which they entertain of the zeal, ability, diligence, and integrity with which the said Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., has executed the important duties of his office during the period of nearly twenty-seven years.

LORD SELBORNE

I wish, with your Lordship's permission, to make a few observations, founded on experience before I was a Member of your Lordships' House, as to the kind assistance given by the late Clerk of the Parliament to the counsel and solicitors who had duties to discharge at the Bar of the House on Appeals. For very nearly the same period of time that Sir John Lefevre has been Clerk of the Parliaments, I was constantly in the habit of practising in this House, and I must say that during the whole of that time, even if I had been a Member of your Lordships' House, I could not have received more courtesy and assistance than I received from Sir John Lefevre. On all occasions he was ready to give to every one—solicitors as well as members of the Bar—all the assistance that was in his power to give. From which I infer that all the officers and servants of your Lordships' House, from the highest to the lowest, would bear their testimony, with one accord, to the universal courtesy and untiring assiduity with which he discharged his duties.

Resolution agreed to nemine dissentiente.

Ordered that the Lord Chancellor do communicate this resolution to the said Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B.

Then, on the Motion of the Duke of RICHMOND, it was— Ordered, nemine dissentiente, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty laying before Her Majesty a copy of the letter of the said Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., and likewise of the resolution of this House, and recommending the said Sir John George Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., to Her Majesty's Royal Grace and Bounty. Ordered that the said Address be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.