Mr. Stuart Wortleybegged to ask his hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford, who was Chairman of the Committee of Selection for the Appointment of Railway Committees, when that Committee would make any Report to the House?
§ Mr. Estcourtsaid, he was glad to have that opportunity of explaining to the House that if blame were to be attached to any quarter for the delay, it certainly did not lie with the Committee over which he had the honour to preside. The 20th of March, the day when the House separated for the recess, was the earliest day on which the Committee of Selection could become possessed of the First Report of the Classification Committee, and before they got that Report it was impossible that they could have taken any steps for the appointment of the Committees on Railways. He hoped the House would 169 not suppose them guilty of any negligence since that Report came before them; and, in proof that they were not negligent, he might say, that if hon. Gentlemen would look to the Votes of the next morning, they would probably find the names of the Gentlemen whom the Committee had already selected published with them.