§ LORD ADOLPHUS VANE-TEMPESTsaid, he would beg to ask the right hon. Member for South Wiltshire (Mr. Sidney Herbert) whether it is a fact that the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the operation of the Warrants of 1854 have declined to receive verbal evidence; and whether it is the case that no minutes are 755 made of the proceedings of the Commission, or the opinions of the individual Members of that Commission; whether, should the above be the case, he has any objection to state the reasons that had influenced the Commission to adopt such a course?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, he had no objection to answer the question. It was perfectly true that the Commission did not think it right to take oral evidence. Many matters referred to were only matters of opinion, not of fact, and they did not think it necessary to receive evidence upon them. Another reason was that many of the questions affected not only the Warrants of 1854, but fresh interests which were rising up every day. Commissions, as the noble Lord must know perfectly well, differed very materially from Committees. No record was taken in Commissions as to differences of opinion amongst the Members, but those Members who dissented from the Report could put in a Report of their own, as was done by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Coventry (Mr. Ellis) on the subject of the purchase of Commissions, and in another in which he (Mr. S. Herbert) presided. On both those occasions objections were put in in the way he had mentioned. He believed the Report from the Commission would be in the hands of the Secretary of State early next week.
§ LORD ADOLPHUS VANE-TEMPESTsaid, he wished to inquire whether the course adopted by this Commission was the same as had been taken by Commissions in which the right hon. Gentleman had previously acted?
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTreplied, that it was exactly the same in every respect.
COLONEL NORTHsaid, he would beg to inquire whether the evidence the Commission did take would be published, or any of the letters they received bearing on the subject would be appended to the Report.
§ MR. SIDNEY HERBERTsaid, the Report would be in the hands of the Secretary of State next week, and no doubt he would deal with it in a judicious manner. The Appendix to the Report would contain all the information which the Commissioners thought necessary to justify the conclusion at which they had arrived.