§ Order for Third Reading read.
§ MR. AYRTONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he contemplated paying this annuity to the company, or closing the contract in a manner more beneficial to the public? From inquiries which he had made as to the value of the annuity, he found that continuing the annuity would be paying more than if they paid the amount in ready money. He hoped, too, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would look through the evidence, which disclosed great laxity in the manner in which the business had been transacted. The ex officio director seemed to have acted quite independently, just as he liked, without the sanction of any Treasury Minute.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, the remarks of the hon. Member referred to matters which the House 2035 was hardly yet in a condition to decide. He deprecated any attempt to impute blame to the non-political civil servants of the Government. The responsibility for their actions he maintained ought always to be fixed on the political heads of the Department, and he hoped that principle would always be maintained. As this Bill was a restitutio in integrum of the original contract, of course all the powers originally reserved to the Government would remain in full force, and it would be the duty of the Government to consider carefully what course would be the most advantageous to be pursued in this matter. Of course it must not be presumed that they had a foregone conclusion as to the policy of continuing the annuity.
§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEsaid, that the officer of the Treasury to whom the hon. Gentleman opposite had alluded, though he might not always have had the sanction of a Minute of the Treasury, had acted throughout in communication and with the sanction of the political heads of the Department.
§ Bill read 3o and passed.