§ Dr. Bowringmoved for a report made to the Home Office, by a committee appointed by the conference lately held at the Crown and 834 Anchor, on the subject of manufacturing distress.
§ Sir James Grahamsaid, that he felt bound to refuse his consent to the motion, on account of the dangerous precedent which it would establish. He had received from four gentlemen, whose names were perfectly unknown to him, a letter stating that they were part of a conference held lately at the Crown and Anchor, and enclosing a very voluminous document, embodying information on the subject of the distress in the manufacturing districts, not collected by themselves, but communicated to them by others. That document was quite open to the hon. Member to make any use of he pleased, in any speech which he might make on the Corn-laws; but as he considered the document of a strictly private nature, and possessing nothing of an official character, he thought that he should be establishing a most dangerous precedent if he were to consent to the present motion, which seemed to him a mere attempt to print a voluminous document at the public expense.
§ Motion negatived.