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WHEREAS his Majesty, by his royal letters patent under the Great Seal bearing date the second day of November one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, was pleased to constitute and appoint certain persons therein named to be principal officers and commissioners of his Majesty’s navy, and by other letters patent under the great seal, bearing date the twenty-fifth day of February one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, was pleased to constitute and appoint certain other persons therein named commissioners for victualling his Majesty’s navy, and for the care of sick and wounded seamen: and whereas it has been deemed expedient that the number of offices in the civil departments of the navy should be reduced, and to that end that the offices or departments of the principal officers and commissioners of his Majesty’s navy, and of the commissioners for victualling his Majesty’s navy, and for the care of sick and wounded seamen, should be abolished: And whereas various duties of the said commissioners being established and regulated by divers Acts of Parliament, it is requisite that such Acts should in some cases be altered, and new provisions made for the due execution of the said duties: Be it therefore enacted by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that in case his Majesty shall be pleased to cancel and revoke the said letters patent by which the said several persons were respectively constituted and appointed principal officers and commissioners of the navy, and commissioners for victualling his Majesty’s navy and for the care of sick and wounded seamen, as aforesaid, all the interests, titles, authorities, powers, and duties vested in the said respective commissioners by any Act or Acts of Parliament, and every matter relating to them and their respective offices, shall from and after such revocation be and the same are hereby declared to be transferred to the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the time being, and shall be vested in and exercised by them in as full and ample a manner, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been named in the said Acts instead of the commissioners of his Majesty’s navy, and the commissioners for victualling his Majesty’s navy, and for the care of sick and wounded seamen respectively, subject however to the provisions herein-after established: Provided always, that such transfer shall not be deemed to confer on the said commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral aforesaid any new office within the meaning of an Act passed in the sixth year of the reign of her Majesty Queen Anne, intituled “An Act for the security of her Majesty’s person and government, and of the succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant line”; nor shall any such commissioner last-mentioned, by taking upon himself, under any new letters patent which his Majesty may think fit to cause to be issued, the duties of the offices so abolished, be disqualified from sitting and voting in Parliament, or thereby vacate the seat in Parliament which any such commissioner may then hold; any thing contained in the said Act of Queen Anne, or in any other Act, or any usage of Parliament, to the contrary notwithstanding; but it is nevertheless hereby declared, that from and after the passing of this Act no greater number than five commissioners of the Admiralty shall be competent at any one time to sit and vote in the Commons House of Parliament.
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