§ MAJOR GENERAL ALEXANDER (for Mr. COCHBAN-PATRICK)asked the President of the Board of Trade, If he can inform the House who constitute at present the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations; how many members are required to make a quorum; how many meetings were held during the year 1883; how many members were present at each meeting; and, of how many Departments of Trade and Commerce the Board of Trade has control?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINThe facts which the hon. Member desires to elicit have been several times stated to the House; but I may, perhaps, be allowed to refer him more particularly to a debate which took place the Session before last on the constitution of a Minister of Commerce. An Order in Council, dated August, 1786, regulates the legal constitution of the Board of Trade, and specifies the various high officers of State (including the Archbishop of Canterbury) who are to form the Committee 880 for Trade and Foreign Plantations. In the last century and at the beginning of this, the business of the Board of Trade appears to have been transacted at meetings of the Committee; but no quorum was required by the Order in Council. No meetings have been held for many years, and all business is now, and has been for a long time past, conducted by the President. The Board of Trade is divided into live Departments—the Commercial, Railway, Marino, Harbour, and Finance—under one or other of which the various duties of the office are grouped.