§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTEI wish to ask the indulgence of the House for one moment, while I take this opportunity of expressing my very great regret that I had, through inadvertence, left the House this morning before the announcement was made by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews of his intention to resign the Chair of the Committee of Ways and Means. I extremely regret to have missed the proper opportunity of expressing, on behalf of myself and many Friends, the feelings of regret with which they heard the cause which has led the right hon. Gentleman to retire, and, at the same time, to express our sense of the great labour which he has undergone during the time he was in the Chair. It is an office which we all know taxes very severely the powers of everyone who undertakes it; and certainly the time during which the right hon. Gentleman—whom I have known in various capacities for many years—has held that office, has been one of no insignificant severity. I hope we shall for many years have the advantage of the assistance of his services in the conduct of other Business in this House, of which he has been a most valuable Member.