§ MR. CANDLISHsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, When a Return, ordered by the House last Session, showing the increase in the Civil Service Estimates and Civil Service Expenditure since 1853, and the causes of such increase, will be ready and in the hands of Members?
§ MR. STANSFELDsaid, the Return to which his hon. Friend referred had been prepared with great care and labour, and he had no doubt would prove most interesting and useful to the Members of that House. It was now in the hands of the printer, and would shortly be distributed. He might generally indicate the nature of that Return. The excess on the Civil Service Estimates since 1853 had yesterday been stated at £5,019,540. Now, it was very desirable that hon. Members should know what was the meaning of that statement. He was not speaking without book when he said that a very large portion of that increase would be found capable of complete and satisfactory explanation; and the House ought to be grateful to those members of the Civil Service who had bestowed great labour on what he believed would prove a very correct and exhaustive account. The Civil Service Estimates had increased during 1770 the period referred to from a variety of causes. In the first instance, the transfers from the Consolidated Fund had, since that date, been to the amount of nearly £1,000,000. The House was also aware that a new and more distinctive form of Estimate had been obtained of late years. If his hon. Friend would compare the Estimates for the year 1854 with those of 1869–70, the net results would rather surprise him. In 1869–70 the net increase in the expenditure, as compared with 1853–4, was not £5,019,000 but £3,467,000. In Class 2 there had been an increase of £262,000, of which £150,000 had been for stationery and printing—a portion of that £150,000 being in relief of some other classes, the expenditure having formerly been paid from various Votes. In Class 3 — Law and Justice—there had been a very large increase of expenditure, an increase of no less than £1,241,000. In Class 4—Education—there had been a net increase, which he expected would be still further augmented, of £758,000. In Class 5, for Diplomatic and Consular Services, there had been an increase of £114,000. Superannuations had also increased by £138,000. Turning to the Revenue Department, there had been a decrease of £200,000 in the Customs and Inland Revenue, and an increase of £1,100,000 upon the Post Office Administration, making a net increase of expenditure in the Revenue Department of £954,000. Those various sums made up the actual excess of £3,467,000.