§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, having regard to the fact that a sum of £14,429 is set down in the Estimates for 1897–8 for salaries in the Lord Advocate's Department, and that the salaries to the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General—namely, £5,000 and £2,000 per annum respectively—are to cover all business of whatever sort done by them in virtue of their office, will he explain why a sum of £77 3s. 6d. was paid to the Lord Advocate last year for services in connection with the Gray Peerage case?
§ MR. HANBURYAttention has been called by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Appropriation Account of the Vote to the item which includes this payment. It will, therefore, come in due course under the notice of the Public Accounts Committee, and I do not propose to anticipate their consideration of the matter.