§ MR. W. E. FORSTERasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether he will inform the House when the Government intend to take the necessary measures for carrying into operation the Government Annuities Act passed last Session?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERbegged to thank his hon. Friend for having afforded him an opportunity of stating how matters stood in reference to a subject of so much importance to a number of individuals, and of considerable public interest. By the sixth section of the Act of last year the tables for annuities and life assurances, or at all events the most important of them, were, when they' had been framed and approved by the Treasury, to be laid on the table of the House for thirty days before they could be acted upon. All those that related to life assurances had, in accordance with that provision, been laid on the table of the House on Friday last. Rules for the ge- 239 neral management of the business had been likewise framed, and, unless the House should think proper to intervene, the Act might, after the expiration of thirty days from last Friday, be considered as in practical operation.