§ SIR DE LACY EVANSsaid, he rose to move for a detailed account of the salaries and expenses of the House of Lords, for which a sum of £22,900 is required in this year's Estimates, in aid of the Fee Fund and for salaries, in the same form as the estimates of the salaries and expenses of the House of Commons.
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid that, if the hon. and gallant Gentleman would refer to the Report of the Committee on Miscellaneous Estimates of 1848, he would find the subject fully explained. The House of Lords paid a portion of the expenses of its officers out of the Fee Fund; but that fund not being adequate to discharge the whole amount, a Vote was required to cover the deficiency. The practice of the House of Lords was to settle the salaries of its officers, and to send a statement of the deficiency to the Treasury in a gross sum. The Treasury laid that gross sum upon the table of the House of Commons and asked the House to vote that amount. It never had been the practice hitherto to take any steps for ascertaining from the House of Lords the detailed items of which the gross sum was composed. Those items were not in the possession of the Treasury, and they were therefore not laid upon the table of the House. If any steps were to be taken in order to obtain those items he apprehended that it must be done by a message to the House of Lords, or by some means of that nature, because it was clearly not competent for the House of Commons to make an Order for a Return upon the House of Lords.
§ SIR DE LACY EVANSsaid he would not press his Motion.
§ Motion withdrawn.
§ House at rising to adjourn till Monday next.