§ DR. CLARK (for Mr. CUNINGHAME GRAHAM,) Lanark, N.W.I beg to ask the Postmaster General, in view of the facts that he stands, under the Telegraphs Acts, 1868 and 1869, as trustee of the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company in liquidation, and that the Post Office is the user of the properties of the late Mr. Thomas Allan, all of which properties are deemed by the Telegraph Acts, 1868 and 1869, to be as land, is he aware that the Postmaster General had notice of this claim in 1870, and that, on 30th July, 1888, in the interlocutory appeal of "William Hind v. Croll," which came before Mr. Justice (now Lord) Field and Mr. Justice Cave sitting as a Divisional Court, the last-mentioned Judge ruled that the non-payment of this claim was a scandal to the Courts; and whether this claim will be at once paid?
§ *SIR JAMES FERGUSSONUnder the Telegraphs Act it was provided that the Postmaster General should not be required to see to the application of the money in respect of the purchase of the undertaking of the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company or be responsible for any misapplication thereof. The Postmaster General, therefore, clearly does not stand in the position of a trustee. Mr. Allan's claim has been many times before the Courts, and has on each occasion been dismissed. In fact, the Lords Justices made an order forbidding the issue of a further writ of summons against the Postmaster General without the leave of the Court. The matter was also specially investigated by the Treasury, and the result was communicated to Parliament in 1879. The matter may therefore be said to have been finally disposed of, and it ought not now to be revived.