§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, If he could inform the House how much of the reduction of the National Debt, amounting during the financial year 1880–81 to £5,325,000, is the natural effect of the operation of terminable annuities and the repayment of loans to the Treasury by local authorities under various Acts passed previous to the meeting of this Parliament, and how much due to Acts passed since he assumed the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer last April?
MR. GLADSTONEI stated the most important particulars, Sir, in answer to the Question of the noble Lord on Monday last, when I said that a considerable payment was due to the conversion, under the arrangements made at the previous periods of the year, of £6,000,000 of Exchequer Bonds into Terminable Annuities. A very large portion of the payment was due to the operation of an Act passed 15 years ago; but nothing of what had been done was due to any Act passed in the present Parliament. The present Parliament last Session passed an Act for the conversion of the Post Office Savings Bank deficiency into such Annuities; but that Act has only just practically come into operation.