§ MR. PICTONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether it is true, as stated in an Old Calabar journal, that Her Majesty's Commissioner offered to an assembly of Oil River chiefs the alternative of government by the Royal 1452 Niger Company, or the erection of the district into a Crown Colony; and, whether the chiefs unanimously preferred the alternative of a Crown Colony?
§ * SIR J. FERGUSSONIt is not the case that the Commissioner made any such offer.
§ MR. PICTONHas the right hon. Gentleman seen it so stated in an Old Calabar journal, and have the natives distinctly stated that they prefer to be directly under the" rule of Her Majesty?
§ * SIR J. FERGUSSONI cannot say that that is a fact within my own knowledge.
§ MR. PICTONWill the right hon. Gentleman be good enough to lay on the Table of the House before the end of the Session any Papers which may have been communicated, and among them the memorial of the native chiefs?
§ * SIR J. FERGUSSONI will make inquiry.