§ MR. HUTCHINSONasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to propose the appointment of a Select Committee on the Law of Newspaper Libel, in continuation of the Committee which sat last year?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES),in reply, said, in the Session of 1879 a Committee was appointed to inquire into the law of newspaper libel, and it sat and took a great mass of evidence, but did not make a Report. He understood that many Members wished that the Committee should be re-appointed, and the Government were willing to re-appoint it. He would ask the hon. Member to confer with the Government as to the time when the Committee would sit; and he wished it to be understood that the Government, in consenting to the Committee, did not pledge itself to take any action to give effect to the Report of the Committee in the shape of legislation.