§ MR. THOROLD ROGERSsaid, he wished to make a personal explanation. He had read a report in The Times, which he presumed was correct, of a statement made on Tuesday afternoon during the debate on the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Bill by the hon. Member for West Norfolk (Mr. Clare Read) as to the views which he was alleged to have expressed on that subject in the United States, he was in the United States in 1882, and in 1881; but he had never made a speech there, never saw a reporter, and took care to avoid that most obnoxious person the interviewer. What the hon. Member had imputed to him was, no doubt, a kind of bucolic invention. He took that opportunity of mentioning the subject, as he was sure that the hon. Member would not intentionally misrepresent him.
§ MR. CLARE READsaid, he had first seen the statement in an American paper, and he had afterwards read it in an agricultural journal. He was extremely sorry to have misrepresented the hon. Member. He was not the first person 311 who had been hoaxed by a Yankee paper, nor would he probably be the last.