§ MR. CHILDERS moved a Resolution that a sum not exceeding £1,828,000 be granted to Her Majesty on account of Civil Service Estimates. In doing so he explained that it was necessary to take such a Vote in advance for the current quarter to meet the expenditure of the first quarter of the financial year. The Committee on Public Monies some years 1780 ago recommended the adoption of that system, inasmuch as it was impossible to take the Civil Service Estimates at the commencement of the year, but then it was understood that the Vote on Account should involve no new principle but should be only in conformity with the Votes taken for the Civil Service during the previous year. The rule had been never to take more than a fourth part of the Vote for the year, except in the case of the site for the public offices, the Patent, and Record Offices, and, in the present instance, the Vote for Civil Contingencies, of which rather more than a fourth required to be taken because of the heavy expenses consequent on the cattle plague. The Committee, in agreeing to the Resolution, would not in any degree be pledging themselves to the Estimates for 1866–7, with regard to which the Committee would have occasion to vote in detail as soon as they were introduced.
§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a sum, not exceeding £1,828,000, be granted to Her Majesty, on account, for or towards defraying the charge of the following Civil Services to the 31st day of March, 1867:—
| Class I. | |
| Royal palaces | £8,000 |
| Public Buildings | 20,000 |
| Furniture of Public Offices | 3,000 |
| Royal Parks and Pleasure Gardens | 20,000 |
| New Houses of Parliament | 12,000 |
| British Embassy Houses, Paris and Madrid | 1,000 |
| British Consulate and Embassy Houses, Constantinople | 1,000 |
| Westminster Bridge | 2,000 |
| New Foreign Office | 15,000 |
| Public Offices, Site (Re-vote) | 20,000 |
| Probate Court and Registries | 3,000 |
| Public Record Repository (Re-vote) | 10,000 |
| Nelson Column | 2,000 |
| Patent Office | 5,000 |
| National Gallery Enlargement | 5,000 |
| Sheriff Court Houses, Scotland | 5,000 |
| Rates for Government Property | 7,000 |
| Harbours of Refuge | 19,000 |
| Holyhead and Portpatrick Harbours, &c. | 11,000 |
| Public Buildings, Ireland | 22,000 |
| National Gallery, Dublin | |
| New Record Buildings, Dublin | 1,000 |
| Lighthouses Abroad | 5,000 |
| Class II. | |
| Two Houses of Parliament, Offices | 18,000 |
| Treasury | 14,000 |
| Home Office | 7,000 |
| Foreign Office | 16,000 |
| Colonial Office | 9,000 |
| Privy Council Office | 6,000 |
| Board of Trade, &c | 17,000 |
| Privy Seal Office | 1,000 |
| Civil Service Commission | 3,000 |
| Paymaster General's Office | 6,000 |
| Exchequer London | 2,000 |
| Office of Works and Public Buildings | £8,000 |
| Office of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues | 8,000 |
| Public Record Office | 6,000 |
| Poor Law Commissions | 20,000 |
| Mint, including Coinage | 13,000 |
| Inspectors of Factories, Fisheries, &c. | 10,000 |
| Exchequer and other Offices in Scotland | 2,000 |
| Household of Lord Lieutenant, Ireland | 2,000 |
| Chief Secretary, Ireland, Offices | 4,000 |
| Office of Public Works, Ireland | 6,000 |
| Audit Office | 10,000 |
| Copyhold, Tithe, and Inclosure Commission | 6,000 |
| Inclosure and Drainage Acts; Imprest Expenses | 4,000 |
| General Register Offices, England, Ireland, and Scotland | 17,000 |
| National Debt Office | 4,000 |
| Public Works Loan Commission and West India Relief Commission | 1,000 |
| Lunacy Commissions and Inspection, &c., of Lunatic Asylums | 4,000 |
| Superintendent of Roads, South Wales | 1,000 |
| Registrars of Friendly Societies | 1,000 |
| Charity Commission | 5,000 |
| Local Government Act Office, and Inspection of Burial Grounds | 2,000 |
| Landed Estates Record Offices | 1,000 |
| Quarantine Expenses | 1,000 |
| Secret Service | 8,000 |
| Printing and Stationery | 90,000 |
| Postage of Public Departments | 38,000 |
| Class III. | |
| Law Charges, England | 9,000 |
| Criminal Prosecutions, &c. England | 47,000 |
| Police, Counties and Boroughs, Great Britain | 66,000 |
| Crown Office, Queen's Bench | 1,000 |
| Admiralty Court Registry | 4,000 |
| Late Insolvent Debtors' Court | 1,000 |
| Probate Court, England | 22,000 |
| County Courts | 40,000 |
| Land Registry Office | 2,000 |
| Police Courts, Metropolis | 6,000 |
| Metropolitan Police | 40,000 |
| Criminal Proceedings, Scotland | 18,000 |
| Courts of Law and Justice, Scotland | 11,000 |
| Exchequer, Scotland, Legal Branch | 1,000 |
| Register House, Edinburgh, Salaries and Expenses of Sundry Departments | 5,000 |
| Accountant in Bankruptcy, Scotland | |
| Law Charges and Criminal Prosecutions, Ireland | 17,000 |
| Court of Chancery, Ireland | 2,000 |
| Court of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, Ireland | 4,000 |
| Officers of the Judges on Circuit, Ireland | 2,000 |
| Manor Courts Compensations | 1,000 |
| Registry of Judgments | 1,000 |
| Registry of Deeds | 4,000 |
| Court of Bankruptcy and Insolvency, Ireland | 2,000 |
| Court of Probate, Ireland | 3,000 |
| Landed Estates Court | 3,000 |
| Dublin Metropolitan Police and Police | 14,000 |
| Constabulary of Ireland | £186,000 |
| Four Courts Marshalsea Prison | 1,000 |
| Inspection and General Superintendence of Prisons | 5,000 |
| Prisons and Convict Establishments at Home | 85,000 |
| Maintenance of Prisoners in County Gaols, &c., and Removal of Convicts | 72,000 |
| Transportation of Convicts | 6,000 |
| Convict Establishments in the Colonies | 10,000 |
| Class IV. | |
| Public Education, Great Britain | 174,000 |
| Science and Art Department | 40,000 |
| Public Education, Ireland | 82,000 |
| University of London | 3,000 |
| Universities, &c. in Scotland., | 5,000 |
| Queen's University in Ireland | 1,000 |
| Queen's Colleges, Ireland | 2,000 |
| National Gallery of Ireland | 1,000 |
| Belfast Theological Professors, &c. | 1,000 |
| British Museum | 25,000 |
| National Gallery | 4,000 |
| British Historical Portrait Gallery | 1,000 |
| Scientific Works and Experiments | 2,000 |
| Universal Exhibition at Paris. | 2,000 |
| Class V. | |
| Bermudas | 1,000 |
| Clergy, North America | 1,000 |
| Governors and others, West Indies, &c. | 6,000 |
| Justices, West Indies. | 1,000 |
| Western Coast of Africa | 3,000 |
| St. Helena | 1,000 |
| Falkland Islands | 2,000 |
| Labuan | 1,000 |
| Emigration | 3,000 |
| Captured Negroes, Bounties on Slaves, &c. | 10,000 |
| Commissions for Suppression of Slave Trade | 3,000 |
| Consuls Abroad | 42,000 |
| Services in China, Japan, and Siam | 5,000 |
| Ministers at Foreign Courts, Extraordinary Expenses | 9,000 |
| Special Missions, Outfits, &c. | 5,000 |
| Third Secretaries to Embassies | 1,000 |
| Class VI. | |
| Superannuation and Retired Allowances, &c. | 45,000 |
| Polish Refugees and Distressed Spaniards | 1,000 |
| Merchant Seamen's Fund Pensions | 14,000 |
| Relief of Distressed British Seamen | 8,000 |
| Miscellaneous Charges, formerly on Civil List | 1,000 |
| Public Infirmaries, Ireland | 1,000 |
| Hospitals in Dublin and Board of Superintendence | 4,000 |
| Concordatum Fund, and other Charities and Allowances, Ireland | 2,000 |
| Non-conforming and other Ministers, Ireland | 11,000 |
| Class VII. | |
| Temporary Commissions | 7,000 |
| Patent Law Expenses | 8,000 |
| Fishery Board, Scotland | 4,000 |
| Local Dues on Shipping under Treaties of Reciprocity | £14,000 |
| Miscellaneous Expenses from Civil Contingencies | 12,000 |
| Total | £1,828,000 |
§ MR.SCLATER-BOOTHsaid, he wished to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he proposed to make a general statement in explanation of the Civil Service Estimates when bringing them before the House?
§ MR. CHILDERSsaid, it was not usual to do so, and he therefore would not pledge himself to act upon the hon. Gentleman's suggestion. The Civil Service Estimates comprised so many different subjects that it would be impossible to deal with them in a single statement. Those Estimates would show an increase of between £100,000 and £200,000 only, which would be found to be connected with Public Buildings.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Resolutions to be reported To-morrow;
§ Committee to sit again To-morrow.