§ MR. VANCEasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House the Bill which he stated to a deputation in Dublin had been prepared by Government for the purchase of the Irish Railways?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUEsaid, in reply, that the Question of his hon. Friend was based on a misreport of what passed on the occasion referred to. He never alluded to any Government Bill being in existence, but to a Bill which the Lord Lieutenant himself had then recently received, through, he believed, the late Lord Mayor, from what was called the Mansion House Committee, on the subject of Irish railways. 1875 That was a Bill providing for the purchase of the Irish railways under an Irish guarantee to be given by means of a system of Irish taxation, and he referred to the subject for the purpose of ascertaining whether the deputation had come to the Lord Lieutenant with a view to support that Bill. He found, upon inquiry, that most of the members of the deputation were not aware of the existence of the Bill, and did not come for the purpose of supporting it. Whether it would be in the power of the Chief Secretary to lay that Bill on the Table he did not know; but he would inquire.