§ Resolutions reported.
§ SIR HENRY WILLOUGHBYcalled attention to the fact that the Estimates for the Revenue Departments, the Customs and Inland Revenue especially, were always placed higher than was necessary. For example, for some years past the House had been called upon to vote £220,000 a year more than was expended, showing that the Estimates were very loosely framed. He asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the discrepancy could be explained, and whether care would be taken in future to prevent it?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHE- QUER,said, there were two questions involved in this subject;—one of a general character and the other of a character peculiar to the present year. The changes contemplated in the Revenue Departments under the financial measures of the Government at the commencement of the Session, were of a nature to bring about, in the course of the year, a considerable contraction of expense; but it was impossible to make any allowance for that in the Estimates, because they did not consist of a lump sum, but were made up of detailed and minute provisions for all the different officers of the establishments; and it was impossible to say with any security, beforehand, the precise nature of each reduction. Therefore, as far as those reductions were concerned, it was not possible to make any allowance for them. With regard to the general question, namely, the expenditure of the Revenue Departments, so far as he was informed, he believed the case to be this: The principal difference was not in the Customs or Inland Revenue Department, but in the Post-Office Department. This was of a nature that rendered it impossible to make a close estimate. In the first place, constant changes in arrangements in detail were made with regard to the minor offices, and in the next there were also changes with regard to the railway companies, the contracts for the carriage of mails, and the uncertainty of the rates they might have to pay made it impossible to give a very close estimate. Where it was not possible to give a close and accurate estimate, it was the duty of the Revenue Department to give such a one as would cover the outside expenditure. At the same time he admitted this was a question in which the House was entitled to insist upon a searching inquiry; and he would afford every facility to the hon. Baronet for that purpose.
§ Resolutions agreed to.