§ MR. ARKWRIGHTbegged to inquire of the right hon. President of the Board of Trade whether he intended to ask Parliament to interfere in any way with respect to the Exhibition of the Works of Industry, 1851? and whether he would give an assurance that no application for an allowance of public money in aid of that exhibition would, under any circumstances, be sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREdid not anticipate that it would be his duty to ask Parliament to interfere in any way with respect to the conduct of the Exhibition of 1851, which in its origin had been, and he trusted to its termination would be, entirely dependent on the voluntary exertions and contributions of the public. The only point on which it was possible he might ask the interference of Parliament, and which was now under his consideration, was whether in the Bill which it would be necessary to propose to the House to amend the Act for the registry of designs, it might not be expedient to introduce a clause to protect from piracy the unpatented articles that might be exhibited. With respect to the second question, he objected on principle to answer questions of that general description; but he could assure the hon. Member that, having the honour to be one of the commissioners for the conduct of the exhibition, nothing was further from the intention of the commissioners than to apply to the Treasury for any advance of money, and that if they did apply he believed that Her Majesty's Government would be unwilling to entertain it. The only expenses which would fall upon the Government were those to which his noble Friend at the head of the Government had referred when he stated that he intended to advise the issuing of the commission, namely, those ordinary and trifling expenses which were necessarily connected with the conduct of any public commission. Beyond that, he did not anticipate that the country would be asked for a single shilling towards the exhibition.