CONSIDERATION AS AMENDED. (Hansard, 28 February 1867)

§ MR. HUNT

said, that when this Bill was last upon the Order of the Bay he stated that he was in hopes that he should be able to-night to state the exact day upon which the new scale of duties and drawbacks would come into force. Since then communications had been made to the other Powers that were parties to the Convention, and though France and Belgium had expressed their willingness to give effect to the arrangement at once, an unexpected difficulty had arisen with regard to Holland. At the Conference of September it was recorded in a Minute that the alterations should take place on the 1st of May, or at an earlier day, in case Great Britain should have sooner obtained legislative sanction for the modifications that would be required in her Customs duties. The Government, therefore, anticipated no delay on the part of other countries; but as the Declaration signed in November at Paris mentioned the 1st of May as the latest on which the alterations must come into effect, it was in the power of the Butch Government to delay the changes in her tariff to that date. Her Majesty's Government had that day learnt from the Hague that the 1st of April was the earliest day that the 1203 Government there could fix upon, and this only on certain conditions as to floating cargoes. Her Majesty's Government required a few day's time to confer with the other Powers who were parties to the Convention as to the effect of these conditions, and whether England could accede to them; but the House must understand that under no circumstances could the change be made before April I. On Monday he hoped to state whether that day would be fixed upon, or whether they must postpone the alteration until the latest day named in the Declaration—namely, May 1.