§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, as he could not address the House again, he would answer by anticipation a question of which notice had been given by the hon. and learned Member for the Tower Hamlets—namely, Whether it was his intention to lay before the House the Bill regulating the imposition of the Duties on Traders mentioned in the 8th, 9th, and 13th Resolutions before taking the opinion of the Committee on those Resolutions? In reply he had to say that it was not in his power to present the Bill to the House until the Resolutions had been passed and reported.
§ MR. AYRTONstated that last Session the right hon. Gentleman first read a somewhat similar Bill the second time, and then passed his Resolutions on the subject in Committee of Ways and Means. He wanted to know whether the right hon. Gentleman was going to pursue the same course on the present occasion? He wished to know the grounds on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had selected the 1198 three classes of traders mentioned in his 8th, 9th, and 13th Resolutions specially as the subjects of taxation? and he thought the best mode of obtaining that information would be from the Bill itself; but, as the right hon. Gentleman declined to lay the Bill on the table, he would put the question in another shape, which would enable him to get the information he wanted in an oral form.