MR. COCHRANE-PATRICKasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether the sum of £10,000 mentioned in the Civil Service Estimates, issued on the 10th instant, as a grant in aid of the Medical Relief given to Parochial Boards in Scotland, is the whole sum proposed to be given this year, taking into consideration the statement made by him on the 2nd of August last, that—
There must be equalisation adaptable to this and some other particular Votes, but that adoption must be immediate. He meant that they must not again present the Votes in the shape in which they now were?
THE CHANCELLORE OF THE EXCHE-QUER (Mr. GLADSTONE)I beg to disown rather emphatically the words which this Question ascribes to me. I am reported in this Question to have said that— 1019
There must be equalisation adaptable to this and some other particular Votes, but that adoption must be immediate.Sir, I am not a great master of the English language; but I must distinguish between the form and the substance, and the substance of what I said, I think, was this, and it will convey a clear idea to the mind of the hon. Member. I did say, last year—I am now speaking from memory, but have no doubt about it—that the question of those particular Votes would have to be reconsidered before they were again proposed, either upon their own merits, and alone, or in connection with some more general proposal. That is the fact; and, likewise, the other day, in refering to the present form of the Estimates, I mentioned the matter, and I said that no inference was to be drawn from the present form of the Estimates as to the intention of the Government to propose them, as they stand upon this and some other points. But I said it would be impossible to recast the Estimates until Parliament had determined upon the principle and the substance of its proceeding.