§ MR. HORSFALLasked the Secretary of the Treasury whether any Commissioner had been sent, or was intended to be sent, to inquire into the repeated complaints which had been made on the part of a large body of the officers of Her Majesty's Customs at Liverpool of inadequate remuneration for their services?
§ MR. WILSONreplied, that no one had been sent from London, or was intended to be sent; the Government had sufficient confidence in the heads of the Customs at Liverpool to believe that, if there were any sufficient reasons for reporting, they would have reported to the London authorities on the subject. In fact, if any one in the establishment in London were to be applied to on the subject, the most likely gentleman to be selected would be one of the surveyors who up to a recent period had been employed in Liverpool, and who knew as much of the establishment at Liverpool as any officer could. He thought, however, that the complaint of the hon. Gentleman was unreasonable, because more had been done to improve the condition of the officers at Liverpool than at any other port of the United Kingdom. There was scarcely one branch of that establishment which had not, within the last few years, been revised and considerably improved. A revision also had taken place in respect to the long room, and the salaries of the clerks there had been improved. He could only add that if any authenticated case of grievance were laid before the Government, it would receive their careful attention.
§ MR. HORSFALLsaid, that, as it would be out of order for him to make any reply to the hon. Gentleman at that time, he gave notice that, on a future day, he would call the attention of the House to the subject.