§ Mr. Hume moved the Order of the Day for the further consideration of the Report of the Controverted Election Fees' Committee. He observed that the report contained the unanimous resolution of the Committee, though at first there had been great difference of opinion in the Committee. The object had been to ascertain what fees appertained to public duties and what to private services, and the Committee had come to the conclusion that all fees charged by individuals in that House were of a public nature, and to recommend the House to abolish such fees, and to place the persons receiving them in the same situation as other public officers. These fees were in some cases of large amount; the average of the whole was about one-seventh or one-eighth of the entire expense of a controverted election. Instead of a resolution at the end of the report, he had had the assistance of the officers of the House in drawing up another, and he moved that "all fees in proceedings before the House with reference to controverted elections, according to the scale of fees in 1831 and 1803, be abolished." There was another charge which was embraced by his next resolution; if either of the Members re- 726 quired copies of the evidence for his own use he was obliged to pay for it to the House at the same rate which the shorthand writer charged, namely, Is. per folio. He moved "that the charge for copies of evidence and documents furnished, when requested, to either of the parties, be reduced from 1s. to 4d. per folio of seventy-two words.
§ Resolutions agreed to.