HC Deb 06 March 1835 vol 26 cc602-4

On the Motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Report of the Committee of Supply was brought up and agreed to.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the Order of the Day, that the House do now resolve itself into Committee of Supply.

Mr. Hume

wished to take that opportunity of putting a question to the right hon. Baronet. Hon. Members no doubt had seen a Report of a Committee of that House in which certain changes were recommended to be made in the salary of the Speaker and of his Secretary, and also that a different mode should be adopted with regard to providing the service of plate with which the Speaker had previously been supplied. Many years ago, instead of a service of plate being given to every newly appointed ambassador, a fixed sum was agreed to be given them, and the plate was to be handed over from each ambassador to his successor. The Committee to which he had referred recommended a similar course to be adopted with regard to the Speaker, by which means a considerable saving to the public would be effected. What he was anxious to know from the right hon. Baronet was, whether he had taken any measure for carrying that part of the Committee's Report into effect?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer:

On the appointment of the present Speaker, the necessity of referring to the Report which the hon. Gentleman alluded to, occurred, and approving as he did of the suggestion of the Committee, as being both advantageous to the Speaker, and economical to the public, he took the earliest opportunity of carrying it into effect. The suggestion was, that a service of plate should be attached to the office of Speaker, by which an annual grant, by way of outfit, would be saved. That suggestion, and every other important one made by the Committee, had been adhered to by the present Government.

Mr. Hume:

Formerly it was usual on the expiration of the period of service by the Speaker's chaplain, to recommend that individual to preferment. On consideration, the Committee to which he before alluded, thought that that was not the proper way of rewarding the servants of the House of Commons; they, therefore, recommended that whoever should be appointed the Speaker's chaplain, should thenceforth receive a fixed and moderate salary. He begged to ask whether the right hon. Baronet had adopted that recommendation?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer

said, that it was his intention to do so, and he believed that the appointment of the present chaplain had taken place with the understanding that that recommendation was to be adhered to. The course pursued in suspending the nomination of the chaplain to any preferment would of itself make it necessary that some new arrangement should be made with respect to the remuneration to the chaplain.

The Speaker

said, that the appointment of the Gentleman who was his chaplain, had been made without any inducement being held out to him of a prospect of preferment.

The House resolved itself into a Committee.

Several Resolutions were agreed to.

The House resumed.