§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)I beg to ask the Attorney General whether his attention has been called to the evidence given at the Marylebone Coroner's Court, on the 18th April, at the inquest on the body of Mr. William Bedwell, who was in the service of the Registrar of the Marylebone County Court for upwards of forty years, and died through overwork; whether the Coroner is correctly reported to have said that, on the face of it, the case involved a public scandal; whether he is aware that Registrars' clerks, although they are appointed and paid by the Treasury, are not Civil servants, and are not entitled to any superannuation allowance, but that the clerks of the City of London Court, the Examiners of Accounts, and County Court Judges, receive superannuation allowances; and whether it is proposed to make any change, with a view of placing Registrars' clerks in a better position?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL (Sir E. CLARKE,) PlymouthIn the absence of my hon. and learned Friend who is engaged elsewhere on Parliamentary business, I will read his answer to this question in his own words. I am informed that Mr. Bedwell, whose death is referred to in the hon. Member's question, died partly from heart disease. I believe it is the fact that latterly he spent a great deal of time at the office beyond the ordinary hours; but there is, on the information before me, no foundation for the statement that he died from overwork. Clerical assistance is allowed if required. I have no report 1528 of the Coroner's observations beyond that which the hon. Member was good enough to send me from a newspaper; but there-certainly is no warrant for the observation suggested in the hon. Member's question. Registrars' Clerks are neither appointed nor paid by the Treasury. It would not be desirable to introduce any legislation with a view of making the clerks of upwards of five hundred Registrars permanent civil servants or entitled to pensions.