No. 39

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 13
of the 1st of March enclosing a Return of the Receipts and Expenditures
of the Assay Department for the year 1864, and proposing on the grounds
assigned by you, to make a considerable increase to the staff of the
Department.

I transmit for your information and guidance a copy of a letter
addressed by my direction to the Board of Treasury, together with a copy
of the reply to it. These letters will place you in possession of my
views, in which the Lords Commissoners of the Treasury concur, with
regard to incurring at present the additional expenditure that would be
required for giving effect to your proposal.