§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER,in moving the second reading of this Bill, said it represented exactly the Bill which went up to the other House, with certain changes suggested by the Committee of the Lords, to whom it was referred.
§ MR. MACARTNEYsaid, he objected to the Bill as unfair and inequitable. It brought into the Estimates the salaries of officers who were entitled under Acts of Parliament, and whilst excepting some officials in England, included others of similar position in Ireland. He thought it would be much better, and much more satisfactory to those Gentlemen who opposed the 1175 Bill upon principle, if the right hon. Gentleman would take the whole subject into consideration between this and the next Session, and then present the Bill in an amended form.
COLONEL DUNNEsaid, as a proof that his objections to this Bill had not been unreasonable, he might refer to the fact that the Government had consented to strike out of the schedule every one of the offices which he had contended ought not to remain in it, namely, offices of a judicial character in Ireland. He had maintained that those offices ought not to be subject to the annual Vote of Parliament, and that principle had been conceded. He should not offer any opposition to the second reading of the Bill in its amended form, but he was authorised to say that many Members of the House of Lords did not look upon the alterations by the Select Committee of that House as meeting all the objections which might fairly have been made to the measure, but regarded them merely as specimens of the kind of alteration which it required.
§ Bill read 2°.