Horace Gray

“ His express resignation of the lower office, the very day before his appointment to the higher office, and when he must have known of and counted upon the coming appointment, was evidently tendered with no intention of leaving the service, and was but equivalent to the resignation which the law would have implied from his acceptance of the higher office. The fact is therefore immaterial (which might otherwise be significant) that his new appointment was to rank from a date before his resignation of the old one. ”

“ We think it was intended-First, to induce men to enter the navy, and remain in it for life; second, to remove the depressing influence of long periods of service in one grade without an increase of pay; third, to compensate for increased professional knowledge and efficiency in officers by increasing their pay inadvance of promotion. If these views are correct, the whole basis of longevity pay is the officer's capacity for duty, and his performance of it; in other words, longevity pay is for longevity in actual service.' Thornley v. ”

“ The act is as applicable to those officers whose actual service has been continuous as to those who have actually served at two or more distinct periods. If an officer has been twice in the service, the grade, the pay of which is the test of computation, is the lowest held by him since entering the service for the second time. ”