§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONsaid, he rose to ask Mr. Attorney General, Why the proceedings which he stated on the 6th of March, 1865, were about to be taken in order to recover from Mr. Leonard Edmunds "the balance of the sums alleged to be deficient" in his accounts have not been so taken; and, why the suit which it was intimated to Mr. Edmunds by the 768 Secretary to the Treasury in January last had been directed to be instituted in the Court of Exchequer has not been proceeded with?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he must beg to explain that the delay had chiefly arisen from its being intended, until recently, to institute the proceedings in the Court of Exchequer, but the regulations of that Court having been altered with regard to matters of that kind under a recent Act, it had been thought, on further consideration, that there was no good reason why the proceedings should not be taken in the Court of Chancery, which had a better machinery for taking accounts. The information, accordingly, either had been already laid, or would be laid within a day or two.
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONsaid, he wished to know, whether the proceedings would be of such a nature as to allow Mr. Edmunds to offer any explanation or defence which might be within his power to all the charges preferred against him?