THE HOUSE OF COMMONS STANDS FOR EXTRAVAGANCE Authoritative character of the evidence tendered by the several Secretaries of the Treasury. Testimony, in 1902, of Lord Welby, who had been in the Treasury from 1856 to 1894. Testimony of Sir George H. Murray, Permanent Secretary to the Post Office and sometime Private Secretary to the late Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone. Testimony of Sir Ralph H. Knox, in the War Office since 1882. Testimony of Sir Edward Hamilton, Assistant Secretary to the Treasury since 1894. Testimony of Mr. R. Chalmers, a Principal Clerk in the Treasury; and of Sir John Eldon Gorst. Mr. Gladstone's tribute to Joseph Hume, the first and last Member of the House of Commons competent to criticize effectively the details of expenditure of the State. Evidence presented before the Select Committee on Civil Services Expenditure, 1873. Before proceeding to the subject proper of this chapter, it is desirable to say a word about the organization and the work of the Treasury.[419] The Treasury consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is almost invariably the Prime Minister; the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and three Junior Lords of the Treasury. "The Treasury is pre-eminently a superintending and controlling office, and has properly no administrative functions." Its duty is to reduce to, and maintain at, the minimum compatible with efficiency, the expenditures of the several Departments of State.