§ MR. NEWDEGATEsaid, before the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Trade answered the question of the hon. Member, he was anxious to call his attention to a subject of the greatest importance to some of his constituents. He was informed that at that moment negotiations with the Government of France were going on as to the basis upon which the 30 per cent duty upon our silk goods entering France was to be determined. He recollected the difficulty that had existed with the American Government upon the subject of those valuations. If the valuations were real, 30 per cent might be said to amount to something like a prohibition. He had seen the French accounts of the mode in which those valuations were made. The valuation of those goods was enormously higher than that which was put upon them at the Custom House on their arrival. The House would feel he was only doing his duty in calling the attention of the Government to this question, inasmuch as a large body of persons whom he represented were already plunged into deep distress by the execution of those Treaties. He trusted attention would be given to the subject, so that the valuation upon which an ad valorem duty was to be assessed in France should not be such as to enhance the duty beyond even the fair 30 per cent that was to be levied upon silk and mixed goods, so that, in fact, that 30 per cent would not be calculated upon the fictitious value that was usually put upon them by the French Government. If there was a mistake on this subject it would render the 30 per cent absolutely prohi- 224 bitory on the whole produce of England in that branch of manufacture.
§ MR. MILNER GIBSONsaid, that in answer to the question of his hon. Friend the Member for Middlesex, he had to state that the Board of Trade was in no wise responsible for the Gas Act. In fact it was not a Government measure; and the Board of Trade possessed no authority under the Act. He was quite unable to give a legal explanation of the various clauses, or as to the mode in which the expenses incurred in carrying out the Act were to be defrayed. All that the Board of Trade had to do with it was simply this:—The Treasury wrote a letter asking whether the Act was a practicable one. The Board took it into consideration and consulted the Astronomer Royal, and their reply to the Treasury was, that it did not appear to them to be at all impracticable, and so the matter, as far as the Board of Trade was concerned, terminated.
With regard to the question of the hon. Member for North Warwickshire, he must beg him to understand that the Commissioners were not about to negotiate upon any new basis or principle, but merely to carry the out details and the provisions of the Treaty already made between the Governments of England and France. There could be no doubt that it would be the earnest desire of the Commissioners to carry out these provisions in the most satisfactory manner.
§ MR. PHILIPPSsaid, that with reference to the Sale of Gas Act, another question arose than that put to the Board of Trade. That question was whether it was just or not; seeing, for example, that it contained a clause for taxing persons who were practically strangers to the use of gas. He (Mr. Philipps) was aware that theoretically speaking, every Member ought to know the contents of every Bill that came before the House; but everybody knew that that was impossible. But certainly no one would have expected to find in a Gas Bill provisions affecting the county rates. The Bill was introduced at the fag-end of the last Session—it was, in fact, the very last measure that was passed; and when he heard it had passed and became acquainted with its provisions, he wrote to his right hon. Friend the Member for Oxfordshire on the subject, who replied that it had passed without his knowledge. He (Mr. Philipps) put it to the House that if a measure passed without the right hon. Gentleman being privy to it, it must have passed in a surreptitious manner.