MR. EDWARDSsaid, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether his attention has been called to the serious financial embarrassments in which many of the Railway Companies of this Country are at present involved in consequence of the recent decision as to the validity of Debentures as a security; whether any applications have been made to the Government for relief, and with what result; and, whether he will state to the House the nature of any such application, the extent of the relief sought, and the terms proposed by the Company or Companies who have applied for such relief?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI am quite sure, Sir, it is impossible for any person who fills the place I now occupy not to have given long and most anxious consideration to the circumstances to which the Question of the hon. Gentleman refers. He inquires whether any application has been made to the Government for relief to railways, and especially with reference to debentures. Well, Sir, no doubt applications have been made to the Government for the consideration of the very perplexed circumstances which exist as regards that class of property; but when the hon. Gentleman asks what has been the result of those applications, and whether I will state to the House their nature, the extent of the relief sought, and the terms proposed by the company or companies who have applied for such relief, certainly I am bound to say, that at the present moment Her Majesty's Government have entered into no engagements whatever with any company. I am sure he will feel that communications of this kind are essentially confidential, and 290 it would not become me to announce the names of those companies who have applied, especially as the applications have not been conceded, or to refer at all to the terms proposed to the Government by those companies that sought for relief.