Mr. FESSENDEN. understand this. There is too much confusion as to the facts, in my judgment, to enable the Senate to act upon it understandingly. The special committee have gone on a basis that they thought was a proper one, and undoubt edly was in the way the matter was referred to them, but. they evidently proceeded under a misapprehension of the facts as stated by the honorable Senfrom Ohio, [Mr. Smammxj We have made an appropriation this year to pay, according to the estimates, the clerks and employees of the HoRep. The estimates were not at all according to the ratio now stated; and it is true, as the honorable Senfrom Ohio has said, that if the HoRep has passed a resolution to add 25%. to the compensation of their employees, it cannot be paid and allowed on settlement by the accounting officers. The compensation is regulated by a law of congress, and one House cannot change it without the other. Now, sir, with regard to this matter generally, if there are any officers whose compensation ought to be increased decidedly because it is permanently insufficient, I am perfectly willing to provide for such cases. For instance, I am willing to allow our chief clerk $3,000, but no};$3, 200 simply because the 25%. added to the compensation of the corresponding officer in the HoRep is supposed to bring it up to that amount. I think, also, that the principal legislative clerk, who now has $2, 160, ought to have $2, 500; and I think that the Sergeant nt Arms, who now gets $2, 160, ought to have $2, 500; and the committee propose to allow him a clerk in addition. that is a new office. allowed in the HoRep simply because the Sergeant at Arms of the House is the disbursing officer and keeps accounts, and i must.necessarily do it. Our Sergeant at Arms makes some purchases and performs extra duties, but he does not perform the duties of a disbursing officer because those are performed by another, whom we pay. There is one thing in this bill that in my judgment is decidedly wrong. It allows to the “keeper of the stationery” $2, 600, and then a new ofilce is created by it of messenger in the stationery room at $1,500. Just look and see how that is managed. Here is a clerk, or a messenger, or whatever you lease to call him, who has charge of the stationery, whom you never see in the stationery room. I never saw him there in my life, and I guess no other Senator ever saw him there. He, under this bill, having charge of that room nominally, is to have $2, 500. He makes the purchases of stationery he provides it; he is called “ the keeper of the stationery;” and instead of keeping it, we appoint a messenger in the stationery room at $1, 600 to do all the work of dealing out the stationery to Senators and keeping the accounts. Then in fact we are to allow a keeper of the stationery $2, 500 a year for nothing in the world except making the purchases of the stationery necessary, and I suppose he may be considered as supervising it. but we employn messenger in addition at $1,500 in order to take care of the stationery. There is $4,000 for that.