§ MR. FITZSTEPHEN FRENCHsaid, he begged to ask the hon. Secretary of the Treasury if directions had been sent to Ireland by any Government authority of this country, to discontinue the expense of inserting in the Dublin newspapers the usual notices of levees about to be held by the Lord Lieutenant. He asked this question, because all parties in Ireland had taken it as an intimation of the Government that they were about to abolish the office of Lord Lieutenant.
§ MR. J. WILSONsaid, he would state to the House the circumstances under which the order referred to by the hon. Gentleman had been issued by the late Government. In the course of the last year a bill came in for advertisements, and upon that bill being examined, it was found to consist of three specific items of charge—one having reference to matters in connexion with various Acts of Parliament; another to matters of a public interest; while the third related to expenditure on account of balls and levees. He had to state to the House that the sum total of 153 the account amounted to 330l. 13s. 8d., and of that sum 7l. 3s. 4d. was charged for advertisements of the first class, 4l. 10s. 10d. for those of the second class—while no less a sum than 318l. 19s. 6d. was to be paid on account of the advertisement of balls and levees. Upon inquiry, it was found that, in the course of last year, the advertisements on account of one levee alone, being seventeen in number, amounted to 35l. 18s., and the expenditure on account of sixty-one advertisements of the ball which followed, was no less than 41l. The late Government, therefore, came to the conclusion that the practice in Dublin and London in reference to these matters should be assimilated, and that the notices should be confined in future to the Gazette; and that was an arrangement which entirely coincided with the views of the present Government also.