§ MR. SMOLLETTsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether he is willing to put upon the table of the House all the Correspondence that has passed up to the present time with the several Governments in India relative to the Famine in Orissa, and to the alleged enormous loss of human life from starvation in that Province in the year 1866; a subject prominently noticed in Her Majesty's Speech to Parliament at its opening upon the 5th of February last, but upon which no official information whatever has been communicated by Government to the House of Commons?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONsaid, in reply, that the late Secretary of State for India had appointed a Commission for inquiry into the subject, but they had not yet reported. The Report having been so long delayed, the Secretary of State had telegraphed to India to know when it might be expected. The correspondence, so far as it had gone, would be laid on the table immediately after Easter.