§ Mr. Brightwished to put a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer relative to the Auction Duties. He had received a letter from Scotland on the subject of these duties. The writer of it informed him that it was common in 959 that part of the country to sell the farming produce on the land by a species of auction, and the custom had been not to charge duty, nor was the person who sold it obliged to take out an auctioneer's certificate. He was told that the persons who were engaged in this employment would be hardly able to take out licenses as auctioneers, and not all at the additional rate which the right hon. Gentleman proposed. What he wanted to know was, whether it were the intention of the Government to forbid, for the future, farming produce to be sold by auction on the land by persons who had not taken out auctioneers' licenses? If such was its intention, he was informed that it would be found a case of extreme hardship to many persons.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequerreplied, that he must beg to decline entering into details until he made his explanation in introducing the general question.