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in 1868, to accept a command, and not to offer himself at that time for re-election.
This offer was declined, with some remarks as to the greater importance of his services at the Board of Admiralty and in Parliament in time of peace than any service he could render at sea. The present Board then took office, and Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney Dacres, who had been a member of the former Board of Admiralty with Sir John Hay, continued in the present Board as its chief naval adviser. His new Board found it their duty to reverse some of the acts of his former Board; but, as Sir Sydney Dacres would have been responsible for them, the present Board hit on the singular expedient of writing memoranda on official documents, so as to affix a stigma surreptitiously on individual members of the former Board. A rumour of this proceeding having come to Sir John Hay's knowledge, he took steps to ascertain the truth of the report with the result shown in the following official correspondence:—
Sir John Hay to the Admiralty.
108, St. George's Square, S.W.,
Sir,
I have the honour to state that, being desirous to refresh my memory on the subject of the Frazer Gun Manufacture, I applied to Sir Sydney Dacres to see the papers on this subject, on which certain correspondence with the War Office is based.
