§ MR. ALBERT GREYasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the letter recently addressed by the Secretary of State at Washington to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, reviewing the Reports from the Consuls of the United States, on the relations of labour and wages, and capital and enterprise, existing in every Country, Colony, and Island in which the United States have consular representatives; and, whether he will cause to have issued to the Consuls of Her Majesty a Labour Circular, similar in character to that issued, on the 15th of February 1884, to the consular officers of the United States, with a view of obtaining the fullest possible information as to the conditions affecting and surrounding Foreign and Colonial 1864 labour, viz.: the rates of wages, hours of labour, prices of food, articles of consumption, rent, &c., and thus affording material for a comparison of their conditions with those which prevail in the United Kingdom?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAIN(who replied) said, his attention had been called to the summary of a very important Return which the United States Government were seeking to obtain as to the rate of wages and other particulars affecting the working classes. He recognized the extreme importance of such a Return, and he very much desired that a similar one should be obtained for this country. He desired, however, to reserve to himself the right of further considering the best way of securing an accurate Return, because he had reason to believe that the Board of Trade could correct and materially add to any Reports of Consular Agents by comparing them with the statistics at present in the possession of the Department.