§ MR. DENTasked the President of the Board of Trade, If he would state to the House why the Agricultural Returns of Great Britain, with Abstract Returns for the United Kingdom, British Possessions, and Foreign Countries, 1872, which were laid upon the Table of the House on July 22, 1872, have not been delivered to Members of Parliament, although comments upon them have already appeared in several of the London newspapers?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUE,in reply, said, the Agricultural Returns for 1872 were formally laid on the Table before the end of last Session, in the hope that they might be issued before the beginning of the present Session. This was not found practicable; but 250 copies of the Returns were delivered by the Queen's Printers to the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade on the 8th of this month, and, according to precedent, copies were forwarded to the different London newspapers. He was 1963 unable to say why the Queen's Printers had not before delivered them to hon. Members of this House, but they were delivered now.