HC Deb 19 February 1864 vol 173 cc794-5
MR. FERRAND

said, he rose to ask the First Commissioner of the Charity Board, In what Act of Parliament the Clause is inserted which increases the salary of the Secretary from £600 a year to £800; and, whether public notice was given to the House that such Clause was intended to be inserted?

MR. LOWE

Sir, I informed the hon. Gentleman the other night that the Clause referred to was to be found in the Charity Commission Act passed in the year 1860, and I had hoped the hon. Gentleman would have been good enough to look it out for himself. But as he has not taken the trouble to do so, I will inform him that it is to be found at the 22nd section of the 136th chapter of the 23rd and 24th Victoria. As to the second part of the question, whether public notice was given to the House that such a Clause was intended to be inserted, I really cannot take upon myself, after a lapse of four years, to say what notice was given. The Clause was in the statute-book, and I presume it came there in the ordinary manner. I may add, that I consulted the late Sir George Lewis, then Home Secretary, who entirely concurred with me in thinking, as did my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that as the Secretary was holding an office of considerable difficulty, having large amounts standing in his name as Trustee, he was underpaid at £600 a year. The hon. Gentleman said the other night that I had, in a private conversation with a Member of this House, expressed myself unfavourably with respect to the Charity Commissioners, and had expressed a wish that an Act should be brought in to check their frauds. I regret that I did not notice the statement at the time; but I wish now to state most distinctly, that I never in my life had any conversation with any Member of this House, or any one else, in which I applied these terms to the Charity Commissioners, of whom I entertain the highest opinion, as being among the most industrious, able, and honest of Her Majesty's Servants.

MR. FERRAND

I hope the House will allow me to say—["Order"]—I never made such a statement. ["Order"]