COLONEL TAYLORsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, When the revised scale of salaries granted to the Clerks in the Customs in the Port of London by Treasury Minute of 28th November 1868, but subsequently suspended by Treasury Letter of 1st January 1869, will be allowed to come into force; and, whether the operation thereof will date, as originally directed, from the 1st April 1869?
§ MR. STANSFELD, in reply, said, the hon. and gallant Member seemed to infer that the only question reserved by the present Government upon the Treasury Minute of the 28th of November, 1868, made by the late Government just before quitting Office, was the time when that Minute should be brought into operation. That there might be no mistake upon the matter, it would be well to say that the present Government took a wider view of their responsibility upon this point, and by suspending the Minute they intended to reserve the right to consider the proposal under that sense of responsibility. He was confident the motives of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer in issuing that Minute were unexceptional; what he had said had reference only to the present Government's views. It appeared that three several Commissions had been appointed to inquire into the subject; two of them had reported, and the third was still deliberating. When this third Commission had reported the Government would give the whole subject their best consideration.