§ MR. KELLY (Camberwell, N.)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the duties of the Superintendent of the County Court Department at the Treasury are directly connected with the supervision of the accounts of the Registrars of County Courts; whether he is aware that the present Superintendent is the joint author of a work on County Court Practice, of which many hundreds of copies of each new edition have been supplied at the public expense to various County Court officials; whether this practice is to be sanctioned in the case of a new work which the present Superintendent has at the press; and, whether a practice should be continued by which those who supervise public expenditure have a direct interest in its increase?
THE CHANCELLOR or THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GOSCHEN)(who replied) (St. George's, Hanover Square)said: The answer to the first Question of the hon. Member is, Yes. The Superintendent of County Courts is joint editor of a standard work on County Court Practice. Each Judge and Registrar of a County Court is entitled to be supplied at the public expense with any one work on the subject which he may himself select, and Pollock and Nicol is one of those sometimes applied for. The new work referred to in the Question is a new edition of this work, the last having been issued in 1880. The editors have sold the copyright, and have no interest in the number of copies issued.