4. Evidence has been given by some of the witnesses as to the effect both in Scotland and Ireland which they attribute to the Act of 1844, but as on this subject your Committee have already stated their views, they do not think it necessary to offer any further observations thereupon.

5. With regard to the Acts of 1845, your Committee are of opinion that it is not expedient to make any alterations in their provisions.

6. Your Committee submit in the appendix various accounts, in which much valuable information will be found on the whole subject of their inquiry.

Draft reports were submitted by Mr. Spooner and Mr. Hume. On the motion for reading a second time the Chancellor of the Exchequer's report, Mr. Hume's draft was put as an amendment, when the Committee divided, and there were were 5 for the Chancellor of the Exchequer's, and 4 for the amendment. Ayes-the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Sir James Graham, Mr. Cardwell; Noes-Mr. Herries, Mr. Glyn, Mr. Spooner, Mr. Hume.

The following amendment to paragraph 17 of the draft report as to the contradictory nature of the evidence on the operation of the Act of 1844, was moved by Mr. Cayley:

"That the evidence of all the witnesses engaged in commercial undertakings (except the Deputy Governor of the Bank), is unanimous as to the disastrous effects of the Act of 1844. Four witnesses, indeed, out of 17, have defended the system on which that Act was founded; but of these four, one is generally believed to be the author of the system, another was the Governor of the Bank, consulted by the framer of the Act of 1844, and the remaining two are the present Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank. It appears, however, that the opinion of the Bank Directors is nearly balanced as to the successful working of the Act of 1844."

For the amendment there were 8, and against it 12. The Ayes consisted of Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Spooner, Mr. Cayley, Mr. Alderman Thompson, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Hume, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Glyn.

The Noes comprised the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir James Graham, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Beckett, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. J. L. Ricardo, Mr. Thornely, Mr. James Wilson, Sir William Clay, Mr. Home Drummond.

The witnesses examined were Messrs. John G. Kinnear, merchant; James A. Anderson, banker, Glasgow; John M'Donnell, Governor of the Bank of Ireland; Robert Murray, Manager Provincial Bank of Ireland; Robert Bell, Manager of the City of Glasgow Bank, Edinburgh; James Bristow, Manager Northern Bank, Belfast; J. F. Macfarlan, Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh; W. P. Paton, merchant, Glasgow ; and John D. Dickinson, Deputy Secretary of the East India Company.

No. LXXVI.-SUPERANNUATION.

Return to an Order of the House of Commons, dated 10th March, 1856, for A Return of the Salaries and Emoluments on the 1st day of January, 1835, and on the 1st day of January, 1856, in the several branches of the Civil Service now subject to Superannuation Deductions, distinguishing in separate columns the rate of salary per head, and the numbers in each class in which either increase or decrease of salary has taken place. Similar Return for all such Political Offices as are usually held by Members of either House of Parliament. Similar Returns for the Diplomatic and Consular Departments, and Return of any general alterations of pay that have taken place since the 1st day of January, 1830, in those classes of the Post Office, Ordnance, and Navy Departments receiving Weekly Pay. (Mr. Rich.) (414.)

These returns show, that in the period between 1835 and 1856, there were 3,886 persons upon whom a total reduction of salary was made of 101,012., or an average of 261. per head; and 2,790 persons to whom a total increase of salary was granted of 91,106., or an average increase of 32. 10s. per head.

The salaries of political offices in 1835 amounted to 114,010%., and in 1856, to 109,125.

The salaries of the consular service in 1855, 88,3201., and in 1856, 126,815l.

No. LXXVII.-SILVER AND GOLD WARES.

Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to Inquire into the Offices for Assaying Silver and Gold Wares in the United Kingdom.

THE Committee consisted of Messrs. Wilson, Liddell, Stanley, Hankey, George Alexander Hamilton, Spooner, Brand, Wilkinson, William Ewart, Bentinck, Peacocke, Muntz, Dunlop, and Masterman. The committee was appointed on the 19th February, 1856; and examined the following witnesses:-Messrs. William Garnett, Inspector-General in the Board of Inland Revenue; James Garrard, of the Goldsmiths'-hall, London; John Lowe, Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company, Chester; Joseph Green, assayer; Samuel Johnson Robert, solicitor, Chester; C. J. Reed, manufacturer of silver plates, Newcastle; Walter Prideaux, Clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company, London; Josiah Sharp, Deputy Warden in the Assay Office; James Williams, silversmith, Bristol; William Thomas Maynard, Assay Master, Exeter; George Ferris, Warden of the Company, Exeter; John Stuart, watch-case maker, Liverpool; Samuel Quillam, watch manufacturer, Liverpool; Frederic Claudet, assayer, London; John Stone, silversmith, Exeter; Jeremiah Fuller, Assay Master Goldsmiths'-hall, London; Arthur Ryland, solicitor, Birmingham; William Westwood, jun., assayer, Birmingham; George Richard Elkington, silver wares dealer; John Thomason, silver worker, Birmingham; Henry Edmund Watson, Clerk of Guardians, Sheffield; W. F. Dixon, Magistrate, West Riding, Yorkshire; Ralph Samuel, Liverpool; James Paterson, Assay Master, Glasgow; David C. Rait, gold and silver worker, Glasgow ; Henry William Field, Assay Master of the Royal Mint; George Twycross, Assay Master, Dublin; and Edmund Johnson, silversmith, Dublin.

The Committee reported as follows:

1. Your Committee have examined a large number of witnesses from the principal assay offices throughout the United Kingdom.

2. The existing assay offices are ten in number, and are established at the following places, setting them down in order according to the amount of assaying performed at each office :-London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Exeter, Chester, Glasgow, Dublin, Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, York.

3. The state of these offices, as to management and efficiency, differs widely. Your Committee find that those offices in which a larger amount of assaying is performed are conducted in a satisfactory manner; while the smaller offices are, generally speaking, in an inefficient condition, and do not afford proper security to the public for the accuracy of their work.

4. Your Committee are of opinion that the inferior condition of the smaller offices may partly be accounted for by their imperfect constitution, and by the absence of effective regulations, existing in the larger offices, for testing the accuracy of assays, and partly by the more limited income which the

smaller offices derive from assaying, and the consequent want of funds to place them in a superior condition.

5. In the progress of their inquiry it has been made manifest to your Committee that the laws regulating the assaying of gold and silver are in a most confused and unsatisfactory state. These laws are scattered throughout a multitude of statutes, some of which are of very ancient date. Almost every assay office is established and regulated by statutes or charters exclusively applicable to itself. Thus the assay offices at London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Chester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin, are regulated by separate statutes differing more or less widely in their provisions.

6. Your Committee are of opinion that the practice of assaying is calculated to afford protection to the public against fraud, and ought to be maintained, and they regard it also as a convenient mode of collecting the revenue.

7. Your Committee strongly recommend that the several statutes by which the assay offices are now governed should be repealed, with a view to removing the anomalies and confusion of the existing law by consolidating into one statute all the provisions requisite for the establishment and regulation of assay offices throughout the United Kingdom, whereby their constitution may be placed upon a sound footing, and full security afforded to the public for the correctness of assays in all offices without exception.

8. Your Committee further recommend that, among other provisions of such a statute, power be given to open new offices at any place in the United Kingdom, where it can be shown to the satisfaction of the Treasury that the manufacture of gold and silver wares requires such establishment for the convenience of trade, and where the income derived therefrom would be sufficient to defray the expenses; and to close any office where the amount of work is insufficient to support it, or where the work is inefficiently performed.

9. Yonr Committee do not apprehend any serious difficulty in framing a comprehensive measure, by which all assay offices shall be placed upon a uniform and well-regulated system, applicable alike to England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The following items are gathered from the evidence of witnesses.

GOLD AND SILVER ASSAYING.

Some quantity of gold is obtained from silver, whilst gold contains silver. Californian gold contains sometimes 40 per cent. of silver. Australian gold is invariably found alloyed with silver, and sometimes with traces of copper. Mr. H. W. Field described as follows the process of assaying gold: first of all, a pound weight-the "assay pound "-is placed in a known portion of lead with a certain prescribed quantity of pure silver, because the gold containing alloy, being in the larger proportion, would shelter the alloy