§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBYsaid, he begged to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he was able to state whether he should require another Committee of Ways and Means, and, if so, on what day he should be prepared to move that the House resolve itself into one?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERSir, in answer to the question put to me by the right hon. Baronet, I beg to state that it will be necessary for a Supplementary Estimate for the Naval Department to be laid before the House before the end of the Session. It appears that on comparing the expenditure of the past quarter with the Vote for the entire year which has been agreed to by the House, there has been a considerable excess, and I apprehend that if the expenditure for the three remaining quarters shall exceed the Estimate as much as it has done in the past quarter, it will be necessary to bring in a Supplementary Estimate for a considerable amount to meet the excess. It will also probably be necessary to present a Supplementary Estimate for the War Department; and if those Estimates should be agreed to by the House, it will then become necessary 854 for me to submit to a Committee of Ways and Means the measures which I shall have to propose in order to meet that increase of expenditure.
§ MR. DISRAELISir, I wish to make an inquiry of the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as I did not clearly comprehend his reply to the question put to him by the hon. Member for Evesham (Sir H. Willoughby). I understood the right hon. Gentleman to state that the public expenditure was so considerable that there was a probability of large Supplemental Estimates being laid upon the table; and that, in consequence, we shall, of course, be obliged to go into Committee of Ways and Means. Now, in reference to what we shall do in that Committee, I wish to make this inquiry—whether, when the right hon. Gentleman contracted for the last loan, he entered into an engagement with the contractor that no further sum should be raised this year in the same manner?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERIt is quite true, Sir, that when the last loan was contracted Her Majesty's Government did give an engagement that they would not raise, by way of loan, any further sum until all the instalments of the loan for 16,000,000l. were paid in. I do not, however, wish to convey that Her Majesty's Government entertain any intention of contracting a new loan for the services of the year—at all events, until the end of December next, in the manner in which that loan was contracted.