HC Deb 24 March 1876 vol 228 cc591-4

  1. (1.) £61,586, Queen's Bench, &c. Divisions, High Court of Justice.
  2. (2.) £92,041, Probate and Divorce Registries, High Court of Justice.
  3. (3.) £12,284, Admiralty Registry, High Court of Justice.
  4. (4.) £48,585, Bankruptcy Court, London.
  5. (5.) £414,426, County Courts.
  6. (6.) £5,414, Land Registry Office.
  7. (7.) £14,240, Police Courts, London and Sheerness.
  8. (8.) £433,374, Metropolitan Police.

SIR WILLIAM FRASER

suggested an increase in the number of the mounted police. They were not now numerous, and in case of any tumult they would be very valuable. Upon certain occasions a few men on horseback were worth more than a large number on foot.

MR. ASSHETON CROSS

said, the suggestion of the hon. and gallant Baronet would receive the consideration of the Government, who would communicate with the Chief Commissioner of Police on the subject. He agreed that the mounted police were a most useful body of men.

MR. DILLWYN

asked for an explanation of the large increase in the Vote.

MR. W. H. SMITH

said, the increase was due to the increase in the strength of the force and the pay of the men.

Vote agreed to.

(9.) £808,098 County and Borough Police, Great Britain.

MR. DILLWYN

said, in this Vote the increase was £74,000 over last year. That was a great addition, for which he should like to have an explanation.

SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON

said, the increase arose in a great measure from the growth of the population in many manufacturing districts, and from the rise in the rate of wages. All applications to the Home Office were scrutinized with the greatest possible care, and the Home Secretary did not believe that the efficiency of the Force could be kept up without certain increases in pay, which had been granted. The contribution from the Imperial Treasury in aid of local rates ought to be known generally throughout the country. The increase shown on the Vote was no doubt large, but it was justified by the circumstances to which he had referred.

MR. DILLWYN

said, from his experience of local authorities, he believed they were disposed to be more liberal with money granted from Imperial funds than with money contributed by means of local rates; and, therefore, it was necessary to watch them a little in a matter of this kind.

MR. ASSHETON CROSS

said, that at present he had no control over the amount of the pay or the number of the police. He was not making any complaint against the boroughs; he thought they managed the matter very carefully. He proposed to ask Parliament for power to enable the Treasury, when it was called upon to pay such a large sum to the police grant, not to pay it except on the certificate of the Secretary of State that the numbers were right, and the pay on a certain scale to be laid down. He did not think that would in the least interfere with local jurisdiction.

Vote agreed to.

(10.) £440,745,Convict Establishments, England and the Colonies.

MR. W. JAMES

asked how far the labour of convicts was remunerative?

MR. ASSHETON CROSS

said, he was anxious to establish some system by which convicts could supply a good deal of the labour that was required by Government Departments themselves. It would, he thought, be perfectly fair that one Government Department should be supplied by another; and with that view he had already allowed a large contract to be executed, by convicts for clothing for the metropolitan police, and he must say that the work had been most admirably done—better, possibly, than it had been for some years.

(11.) £101,187, County Prisons, Great Britain.

(12.) £230,547, Reformatory and Industrial Schools, Great Britain.

(13.) £24,484, Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

(14.) £18,690, Miscellaneous Legal Charges, England.

(15.) £69,389, Lord Advocate and Criminal Proceedings, Scotland.

(16.) £59,527, Courts of Law and Justice, Scotland.

(17.) £32,389, Register House epartments, Edinburgh.

(18.) £24,189, Prisons and Judicial Statistics, Scotland.

(19.) £80,453, Law Charges and Criminal Prosecutions, Ireland.

(20.) £42,196, Court of Chancery, Ireland.

(21.) £28,901, Common Law Courts, Ireland.

(22.) £9,619, Court of Bankruptcy, Ireland.

(23.) £12,283, Landed Estates Court, Ireland.

(24.) £11,530, Court of Probate, Ireland.

(25.) £1,700, Admiralty Court Registry, Ireland.

(26.) £18,460, Registry of Deeds, Ireland.

(27.) £3,060, Registry of Judgments, Ireland.

(28.) £136,975, Dublin Metropolitan Police.

(29.) £1,086,168, Constabulary, Ireland.

MR. DILLWYN

said, this was a large and increasing Vote. It had increased £13,131 since last year, and he wanted some explanation.

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

said, the increase was chiefly due to the pensions to the Constabulary under the Act passed two years ago.

MR. STORER

thought the expenses of the Irish Constabulary ought to be reduced to the English level, and that the Irish people should contribute as the English did, to the maintenance of their police. If they did so, it would probably give them a greater interest in the maintenance of peace in the country.

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

reminded the hon. Member that the Irish Constabulary was a Government force, and not constituted like the English county police.

MR. SULLIVAN

could assure hon. Members that that was one of those items with a considerable portion of which the Irish people would willingly dispense. The semi-military element of benevolence for Imperial purposes was larger than they required; and although they thought they might be helped with regard to fisheries and other matters of that kind, they would have no objection to dispense with some of the expenses of the Constabulary, which was not a police Force, but a military Force, maintained in Ireland for Imperial military purposes.

Vote agreed to.

(30.) £40,540, Government Prisons, &c. Ireland.

(31.) £90,768, County Prisons and Reformatories, Ireland.

(32.) £6,165, Dundrum Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Ireland.

(33.) £69,666, Miscellaneous Legal Charges, Ireland.

House resumed.

Resolutions to be reported upon Monday next;

Committee to sit again upon Monday next.