§ MR. W. M. TORRENSasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is proposed to disestablish a large number of clerks in the Customs, or to change their rank and conditions of service, for the purpose of introducing an administrative reform connected with the warehousing system; and, if so, whether the Government will consider the justice of offering to those clerks terms of retirement as reasonable as the terms recently granted to the clerks of the War Office and the Admiralty under similar circumstances?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHWe hope to provide appropriate situations for the great majority of the clerks affected by the changes referred to in the Question of my hon. Friend. As regards any who may have to be retired, the very peculiar circumstances which warranted the exceptional terms given to the War Office and Admiralty, under a special Act of Parliament, do not exist in their case; but the Superannuation Act of 1859 provides for an addition to pension in cases of abolition, of office.