§ LORD CLAUD HAMILTONsaid, he wished to be informed by the hon. Member for Devonport of the day on which he proposed to resume the adjourned debate on the growth of Cotton in India?
§ SIR ERSKINE PERRYsaid, the adjourned debate was fixed for Tuesday next, but the Business Paper for that night was already so full of Notices and Motions on other subjects that it was impossible 347 to hope that the adjourned debate could be then resumed. The first open Tuesday was the 23rd of July. The only other day open to private Members was Wednesday; but Wednesdays were so occupied by the hon. and learned Member for Ayr (Mr. Craufurd), that it was impossible to resume the debate on a Wednesday. Unless, therefore, the noble Lord at the head of the Government would give up a Government night for the discussion of the cotton-growing question, he was afraid that nothing more could be said upon it during the present Session.
§ LORD ADOLPHUS VANE-TEMPESTsaid, he would beg to ask the noble Lord at the head of the Government whether he was prepared to set apart a day for the resumption of the debate?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONSir, I feel great interest in that debate, and am anxious that those hon. Gentlemen who have not spoken should have an opportunity of expressing their sentiments and discussing the whole question. But I am afraid that at this period of the Session it will be quite impossible to give a day for that purpose. Indeed, any promise that I could make of that sort is already mortgaged to the right hon. Baronet the Member for Droitwich (Sir J. Pakington) on the subject of Education.
§ LORD ADOLPHUS VANE-TEMPESTsaid: Are we, then, to understand that the adjournment of the debate was a mere mockery?
§ MR. HADFIELDsaid, he wished to know whether, as Her Majesty's Ministers will be at Manchester on Tuesday next, there will be a sitting of the House that day?
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTONThe Secretary of State for the Home Department will be in attendance upon her Majesty at Manchester on Tuesday, and I have received a very kind invitation from Manchester, of which I will avail myself; but we shall be the only Members absent, and that will not, I apprehend, prevent the House from going on with the business on Tuesday.