§ GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOURasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, If he will move for the appointment of a Select Committee, immediately the 967 House re-assembles, to inquire into the various changes made during modern times in the Appropriation Acts; also into the Exchequer and Audit Act (29 and 30 Vic. c. 39); the nature and extent of the audit applied to—the income and charge of the Consolidated Fund, the Civil Service Voted Funds, and Naval and Military Receipts and Expenditure; also as to the rules, orders, and forces for the audit business made by the Comptroller and Auditor General; also into the orders and instructions issued by the Treasury, or of those that might or ought, but have not been issued; and, finally, as to the form in which the resolutions should be drawn up for the decision of Parliament regarding the surpluses, excesses, deficiences, and other details, not alone, as at present, for the Naval and Military expenditure, but of the whole expenditure of every kind?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, that the various matters referred to in the Question of the hon. and gallant Gentleman appeared to be matters which would properly come under the cognizance of the Committee on Public Accounts. If the hon. and gallant Gentleman was dissatisfied with what was done in respect to any of these matters, and if he would formulate his charge next Session, so as to let the Government see precisely what were the points of which he found reason to complain, there would be every disposition to find the means of inquiring into any allegations which he might make.