§ MR. GROGANsaid, he wished to recall to the attention of the House that some time ago a Commission, consisting of five Members, was issued to inquire into the state of the Endowed Schools in Ireland. The Commissioners, after concluding their 461 investigation, could not agree upon their Report. Three of them drew up and signed a Report which they presented to the Government; the fourth also laid a Report before the Government, while the fifth embodied his opinions in a letter to the Home Office. What he wished to know was whether, when the two Reports were laid on the Table, they would be accompanied by the letter of the fifth Commissioner?
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, he rather believed that the Report of the Commissioners, to which the hon. Gentleman alluded, had already been laid upon the Table. He wished to call the attention of the House and of the hon. Members to the extreme inconvenience which would result from allowing any one Member of a Commission to report separately. Commissioners such as those who had inquired into these Endowed Schools were authorized by the Crown to report collectively and jointly. The great object of such Commissions was to get the joint authority of the Commissioners as to the Report; and if the Commissioners differed, it was usual—it was indeed the almost invariable custom—that they should state their differences in the body of their Report, or call attention to it in the appendices. When filling the place which he (Mr. Walpole) now occupied, the noble Lord the Member for the City of London refused to lay two Reports, or rather letters, emanating from Commissioners acting in the Larne inquiry on the Table of the House. He (Mr. Walpole) had thought it right to send the letter referred to by the hon. Member for Dublin (Mr. Grogan) to the head of the Commission to see whether he or the rest of the Commissioners had any observations to make on it; but they had not done so. Under those circumstances, if the hon. Gentleman gave notice of a Motion for the production of the letter, he would assent to its production.
§ MR. GROGANsaid, he would move for the production of the letter to-morrow.
§ MR. KIRKsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland when the Report of the Commissioners of Endowed Schools (Ireland), which was presented to the House on the 26th day of February last, and which it was understood was printed at the time, will he distributed to Members?
LORD NAASsaid, it was not the practice to distribute such very voluminous Reports as this was to the Members of the House. There were, however, 250 copies of it in the Bill Office, and a copy would 462 he delivered to any hon. Member who applied for it.