§ Mr. HEYGATEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to the large amount of fees payable on Crown Presentations to Benefices, as stated in page 313 of the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Ecclesiastical Offices and Fees Bill, 1876; e. g. paid to Home Office £7 13s. 6d., Attorney General £8 18s. 6d., Presentation Office £14, total £30 12s., on a benefice under £300 a-year; and, whether he can inform the House for what services these fees are payable, and to what purpose they are applied?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSI am glad my hon. Friend has called my attention to this matter. I stated the other day that I thought fees were very soon swallowed up; but I am afraid the person by whom they are swallowed up in the present instance is my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The first sum referred to (£7 13s. 6d.) has been payable to the Home Office for a considerable period in respect of church presentations, charters, and warrants of 320 various kinds. It was originally composed of "fees" and "gratuities," the former amounting to £6 7s. 6d., and the latter to £1 6s., the former sum being traced in the office books as far back as 1727. Prior to 1795 the united amount was received for the use of the Secretary of State, Under Secretaries, the clerks, and office keepers. In February, 1795, an Order in Council directed the "fees "and "gratuities" to be carried to a "fee fund" for the payment of the office salaries, and ever since that date this sum of £7 13s. 6d. has been simply recorded as a "fee." It is a public one, and is now handed over to the Exchequer as soon as received, instead of being retained as formerly to meet the expense of salaries. With respect to the sum payable to the Attorney and Solicitor General, I have before me a statement of the service rendered for that payment. It consists in signing the warrant, the fee for which, £5, was formerly divisible between them, but which is now paid into the Exchequer. Then the Clerk of the Patents receives for drawing the warrant a fee of £2 7s. 6d., and for engrossing a guinea is received, the Stamp Duty being 10s.—total £8 18s. 6d. These fees are by arrangement now paid into the Exchequer. The stamps payable in the Presentation Office upon presentation to a living in the Lord Chancellor's patronage which exceeds £250 and is under £300 in value are—ad valorem stamp, £5; fee stamp, £8—total, £13. The whole of these fees, being payable in stamps, go into the Treasury and form part of the revenue of the country. The result is that there is the most direct taxation possible on the poorest class of persons who could possibly be called upon to pay it.
In reply to Mr. CHILDERS,
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERstated that he had no objection to consider the re-appointment of a Treasury Committee on the subject of these fees.