§ MR. HORSMANwished to put a question, of which he had not given notice, but perhaps the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department would be able to give an answer now. Allusion had been made on the previous evening to the late secretary of the Ecclesiastical Commission, and to some steps taken when the defalcation brought home to him had been discovered. He wished to know if it were true that the secretary had executed a deed of assignment before he went away? He had heard that the secretary did so, that the Government took steps to make him deliver up whatever he was in possession of, and that after executing the deed he was permitted to take his departure. He wished to ask whether this was true, and, if there were such a deed, whether there was any objection to produce it to the House?
§ SIR G. GREYwas not able to answer the question precisely. When the existence of a defalcation was ascertained, his noble Friend the First Lord of the Treasury placed the Solicitor to the Treasury in communication with the Ecclesiastical Commission, in order that the most effectual steps might be taken for recovering whatever could be recovered. What the precise steps which had been taken were he did not know, but he understood from the Solicitor to the Treasury that he had taken those steps which he considered most efficient, in order to render the whole of the property available for that defalcation. No criminal proceedings had, however, been instituted against Mr. Murray, of whose present place of residence he (Sir G. Grey) was not aware.