§ Dr. Bowringsaid, that with the permission of the House, he would put a question to the hon. Member for Knaresborough. He understood that hon. Members had written to an individual in Glamorganshire, urging him to get up two petitions against the truck system, and urging him to obtain information whether a Member of the House of Commons was not, at present, sharing in the profits of the truck shop, in connection with some iron works in that county. He understood that he was the Member referred to, and he was, therefore, desirous of asking the hon. Member for Knares-borough whether the accounts that had reached him were true?
§ Mr. Ferrandsaid, that a few days ago, he had received a letter from a gentleman residing near the iron works alluded to, who stated that the truck system was carried on there in the same cruel and oppressive way as last year, and inquired whether he had not a right to make the matter a subject of a petition to Parliament. He said, that Dr. Bowring, a Member of the House of Commons, was one of those who were profiting by the system. He (Mr. Ferrand) had written in reply to the Gentleman in question, that he would have a perfect right to petition Parliament on the subject, if he could show that a Member was profiting by a truck shop.
§ Dr. Bowringsaid, the hon. Member had been quite misinformed. The payments at the works in question were all made in the shape of checks on a banker. There was formerly a shop connected with the works, and he believed the shop had been a great blessing to the people employed; but immediately he became connected with the establishment, he directed that the shop should be done away with, that the law might not be evaded either directly or indirectly.