§ SIR WILLIAM HEATHCOTEsaid, he would beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what means have been taken by the Government to bring under adjudication the claims of the several parties who maybe entitled to compensation under the Probate Acts of last Session?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, that the subject was one of considerable importance. The claims already sent into the Treasury were very considerable, the least estimate he could put them at, being a quarter of a million sterling. The House would therefore perceive that it was not a light matter for adjudication. It was quite impossible for the common staff of the Treasury in the fulfilment of its duty to meet such an exigency, and therefore he thought it right to issue a Treasury Commission to which those claims would be submitted, and he should ask a Member of the Government to pre-side over it—namely, the Judge Advocate; and he had invited and obtained the con-sent of two gentlemen, not Members of that House to be Commissioners, whoso names would be a security to Parliament for the able and efficient performance of their duties—namely, Sir Stafford North-cote, who had very considerable experience in matters of that kind of public business, and Mr. Follett, the Taxing Master of the Court of Chancery.