( 19 )
should attribute to a conversation with his private secretary in the unrestrained freedom of social intercourse, the weight of such an offer of a command as would justify him in saying that Sir John Hay had declined a command. Several commands have been vacant since Mr. Childers took office—none have been offered to Sir John Hay, either by interview or by letter.
But what was the command about to be offered?
When Mr. Corry left office, Sir Leopold Heath, who had been the colleague of Lord Napier of Magdala during the Abyssinian war, had been left as a first-class Commodore in command on the East Indian Station. Mr. Childers reduced him to a second-class Commodore because he could not justify the expense of maintaining Sir Leopold Heath as a first-class Commodore on so unimportant a command. The command must have been, in the opinion of this Admiralty, unimportant indeed, when the General, having been made a Peer, the Commodore was reduced in rank before his term of service had expired. No other Rear-admiral has been appointed to the command which Sir John Hay declined.
Sir John Hay replied as follows:—
21st March, 1870
My dear Childers,
I have received your note of Saturday, offering to appoint me to the East Indies as a Rear- Admiral's command.
Whilst thanking you for the offer, I am bound at the same time to say that I do not see how I could accept it with honour.
It is manifestly made to save me (especially) from the incidence of a new regulation, framed so as to deprive many
