§ MR. RITCHIEasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether a Petition from the Temporary Writers and Copyists, on the subject of their remuneration, was received at the Treasury in July 1880; and, if so, whether the matter had received or was receiving the attention of the Lords of the Trea- 1416 sury, and when the memorialists might expect to receive an answer to their petition?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHThe Petition referred to was received, and its receipt acknowledged on the same day. The subject of it had been carefully considered by the Treasury under the late Government, and their decision was communicated in 1877 in reply to a similar Memorial. The present Board of Treasury see no reason for departing from that decision. The present Memorial contains no new facts, and it is obviously not for the advantage of the Public Service that controversies of this kind should be encouraged.