§ MR. BOOKERwished to ask a question of the right hon. President of the Board of 635 Trade. He had seen in the ordinary channels of communication a statement, that certain proceedings had taken place in the House of Representatives in the United States, of deep importance to the trade and manufactures of this country. It was stated that on the 25th of February last an hon. Member in the House of Representatives, on the discussion of a Bill then before it, proposed an amendment, imposing an additional duty on all kinds of iron, and various other manufactures, and imposing certain duties on certain articles that before were entirely exempt from duty, and that that amendment was carried by a majority of 127 to 54. A friend of his, writing from Philadelphia on the 10th of March, said he was informed there was likely to be a party compromise, which would secure for the iron and coal of that country a much greater protection than that which they already enjoyed, and which was at present 30 per cent; but that as to cotton manufactures nothing was at present arranged, Manchester having outbid those who were engaged in cotton manufactures in that country. On this alleged Manchester proceeding it would not be proper that he should now say anything. He wished, therefore, to ask the right hon. Gentleman if the Government had received any information, and if they would lay it before the House, of the nature and extent of increase in the protective duties proposed to be levied on the import into the United States of all kinds of iron, and on various other articles of British produce and manufacture now exempt from duty?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREreplied that, having had notice of the question, he had made it his duty to inquire whether any report had been received from Sir Henry Bulwer, our Minister at Washington, and he found that no despatch had been received from him since the date of these transactions; but he had seen in the newspapers an account of the proceedings to which the hon. Gentleman's question referred, and he had no reason to doubt the correctness of that statement. The proposed alteration of the tariff, however, had not passed into a law by the Legislature of the United States. It had passed only one branch of the Legislature—namely, the House of Representatives, and had not passed the Senate.