§ MR. SCOTTreferred to a recent statement in the papers to the effect that emigration was, to a great extent, taking place in Dorsetshire under the encouragement of the Emigration Commissioners, who, it was alleged, had sent down an agent who had given free passages already to upwards of a thousand persons; and he (Mr. Scott) begged to ask the Under Secretary for the Colonies (Mr. Hawes) whether this were true: if so, whether Government would extend similar encouragement to emigration from other counties, where there was an equal anxiety to secure such aid; and, if not, whether the Government did not consider that this would unduly stimulate emigration from a particular district? The hon. Member added, that he understood, so numerous were the applications for aid, that an emigration ship could easily be freighted with emigrants every two days.
§ MR. HAWESintimated that he was not perfectly acquainted with the facts, but that he would make inquiry, and begged that the question might be repeated on some future day.