HC Deb 11 November 1882 vol 274 cc1636-7
MR. CALLAN

asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is intended in the future that the dual office of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer shall be represented in the person of one Member of the Cabinet; and, if so, whether the Government are prepared to make any suggestion by which a more economical arrangement than the present may be effected?

MR. GLADSTONE

Sir, there is no intention that the Offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer shall in future be represented in the person of one Member of the Cabinet. The hon. Gentleman then asks me whether the Government are prepared to make any suggestion by which a more economical arrangement than the present may be effected? Evidently the hon. Member is under some misapprehension. He knows probably the Rule on which the salary of the First Lord of the Treasury is regulated when he is Chancellor of the Exchequer. The present arrangement is not an arrangement which causes an increase, but a decrease of expenditure. In 1872, the salaries of the Board of Treasury and the Private Secretaries were £13,000; in. 1877 they were £14,300; and in 1882 they are £10,400. So that the hon. Member is under a misapprehension, as I have said, on the point of economy. But I am very far from saying that the present arrangement is a good one, because I doubt whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer ought not to be the most vigilant man in the Cabinet or the Government; and I do not consider that his duties are performed at the present moment in a perfectly satisfactory manner by me. I do not think I am able to search out and make work for myself. Work that comes to me I hope to do; but I do not consider that I am able to search out and make work for myself in the same degree as I think a thoroughly good Chancellor of the Exchequer ought to do. I may say I have endeavoured to do my best; but I hope that no very long time will elapse before a change in the present arrangement is made, although that change will be more costly than the present arrangement.