§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, that the Question he was about to ask related to a gentleman who, forty years ago, when he entered the service, was induced by the late Government of India to subscribe to the Fund on the understanding that the Government would supplement the contribution by an addition which would make that investment far more advantageous than any of a similar character. He now wished to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether any, and what, Reply has been given to the letter of Mr. Harvey (late Accountant General for India), dated the 29th December 1862, and addressed to the Managers of the Bengal Civil Annuity Fund, in which application is made for the refund of the excess of his contributions above the half value of his Annuity; and whether he will lay upon the table of the House a Copy of the above Letter, with any reply thereto; and if no reply has been given, whether he will lay upon the table of the House a Copy of the above Letter, together with Copies of the Despatches and Documents therein referred to?
§ SIR CHARLES WOOD, in reply, said, that the letter referred to was addressed to the Managers of the Bengal Civil Fund, which was a private body. Whether they had sent any reply or not, he was not aware, and he could not undertake to produce a reply of the existence of which he was not aware. He had received Mr. Harvey's letter to the Bengal Annuity Fund as an inclosure from India, but he could not say whether any answer had been given to it. With regard to the conditions of subscription, one of them was that no refunding of the surplus subscriptions should ever be made. Those conditions having been accepted by the subscribers, he did not admit any claim to refund.
§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, he wished to ask if he might understand that the right hon. Baronet would produce the letter of Mr. Harvey?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODsaid, he should object to produce the letter of Mr. Harvey alone, because it would not give a correct 1770 notion of what was the state of the case. If the hon. Gentleman wished to have the whole case of these funds brought forward, so far as it was contained in the public despatches, he (Sir Charles Wood) would have no objection to lay those despatches on the table.