§ MR. PAUL (Edinburgh, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he has received a Memorial from the staff of the Commissary Office in Edinburgh, asking that they may be admitted to rank as Civil servants in respect of pay and other advantages; and whether, in view of the fact that the work done at this office is as important and efficient as the similar work of the Dublin Probate Office, that the salaries are nearly 50 per cent. lower, and that the hours of the staff, which consists of only eight persons, have recently been raised from six to seven a day, he can give a favourable answer to the prayer of the memorialists?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANI have received the Memorial to which the hon. Member alludes. In 1890 the Treasury laid down the principle that in offices of a semi-legal character, like that of the Commissary for' Scotland, it was inexpedient to entertain a staff of clerks on the Civil Service Establishment. I think it not advisable to press the Treasury now to re-consider this line of policy which they have clearly laid down.