§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, How soon the inquiry promised last Session into the state of ventilation, and the great loss of life consequent on labouring in tin, iron, copper, and other metallic mines, will be made?
SIR GEORGE LEWISsaid, that in the course of the discussions last year on the Bill regulating coal mines a promise had been made on the part of the Government that an inquiry would be instituted within some reasonable time into the state of the ventilation and the labour of metallic mines. He had not yet entered into any arrangement for the purpose of making such an inquiry, but if it should be the general wish of the persons engaged in that branch of industry to have that inquiry, and if it should appear that it would lead to any beneficial results, he would be prepared to take the necessary steps for effecting that object.