§ Mr. Laboucherebegged to put a question to the Vice-President of the Board of Trade on a subject on which great apprehensions existed. A trade had hitherto been carried on in the export of cement stones from the port of Harwich and its vicinity, which employed 200 ships. The new tariff imposed a duty of 6d. a hundred, or 10s. a ton, on cement stones exported, whereas the value of the article was only about 5s a ton. Thus they had imposed a duty of 200 per cent, ad valorem on this article. He would ask whether the right hon. Gentleman was aware of this when the tariff was brought in, and whether any representation had been made to him of the apprehensions which it had excited in Harwich and its vicinity.
Mr. Gladstonesaid, the tariff, containing the duty in question, was printed and before the public three months, but no remonstrance or observation of any kind on the subject had reached the Government till that day. It would appear that information on which the Government acted in the first instance was questionable, and he could only say that the subject would receive immediate and serious attention.