§ Mr. Pattisonwished to ask the right hon. Gentleman, the Chancellor of the Exchequer an important question. He thought it of the highest importance to the public credit, that a statement made in a paper of that day should be contradicted, if it were not founded on fact. The statement to which he alluded, was to the effect, that no portion of the deficiency bills had been paid off since the 1st of January. He wished to know whether that were correct.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerhad not previously seen the paragraph in question, but in the course of that day he had received a communication from his right hon. Friend, the Comptroller of the Exchequer, calling his attention to the extraordinary statement which had appeared relative to the matter to which the hon. Member had alluded. It was not because he thought such statements should on ordinary occasions be noticed, or refuted, that he replied to the question, because he thought that the more free and unrestricted discussion was out of doors, the better it was for the commumunity at large. But where a statement made had a tendency to affect public credit and where it admitted of an immediate and direct contradiction, he thought it justifiable for any hon. Member to ask the question, and he thought it the duty of a Member of the Government to answer the question. His attention had been called to the subject by his right hon. Friend, the Comptroller of the Exchequer, and the best answer that he could give to the question which had been put, was, to read the letter from his right hon. Friend, in which he stated, that he had always disregarded statements which appeared in the public press respecting the conduct of business in his office, but that if he now deviated from that course, it was, because he considered an article which had appeared in that day's City intelligence, as was one vitally affecting public credit, and that it therefore became necessary for him to declare the statement totally unfounded, and at complete variance with the existing condition of the financial department. His right hon. Friend then referred to a fact, which the House, he was satisfied, would have great pleasure in hearing, that so far was it from being true that no deficiency bills had been paid off since the 1st of January, a larger amount had been paid off in the present 698 year, than at the similar period of the previous year. It was not for the mere purpose of contradicting a paragraph of that description that he had made his statement, because such paragraphs were generally written without any knowledge of the official facts, but the House would feel, that in a matter so deeply affecting the public credit, his right hon. Friend, the Comptroller of the Exchequer had only done his duty in enabling him (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) to give to the assertion an immediate direct and complete refutation.