HC Deb 10 August 1885 vol 300 cc1579-80
MR. ARTHUR ARNOLD

I beg to put a Question to the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer in reference to his speech at Bristol on Saturday. I desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether he is correctly reported to have said, with reference to the proposed Royal Commission on Depression in Trade— Right hon. and hon. Members of the Opposition have seemed to shrink from serving on this Commission because they appear to imagine that those doctrines may be questioned, and, as it were, to doubt their power of defending them. We desire, in the name of the nation, the help of our political adversaries in this matter, and if they do not give it they will be wanting in their duty to their country and their Queen. I wish, Sir, to ask whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer is thus correctly reported; and, further, if he will lay on the Table of this House the Correspondence which has passed between the Earl of Iddesleigh and those right hon. and hon. Members of the Opposition, in order that it may be seen what was the numerical position in which the Earl of Iddesleigh desired to place those who defend the economic doctrines which have governed this country for a generation or more. [Cries of "Oh!" and "Order!"]

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

The Notice of the hon. Member's Question was only placed in my hands as I entered the House, and therefore I have had no opportunity of referring to any report of the remarks which I made at Bristol. But I think the quotation of the hon. Member accurately represents the purport of what I said, with this exception—that I did not, so far as I recollect, go as far as to say "that they will be wanting in their duty to their country and their Queen." What I said was, I think, an expression of my own belief that service on such a Commission as this, if required, was a duty which those who had been invited to serve owed to their country. With regard to the Question of the hon. Member as to the Correspondence between the Earl of Iddesleigh and the right hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Shaw Lefevre), it is, of course, of a nature which prevents my laying it on the Table.

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

As one of those concerned in this matter, having been invited to take part in this Commission, I venture to hope that the right hon. Gentleman will lay before the House the Correspondence which has passed between myself and the Earl of Iddesleigh. [An hon. MEMBER: Move for it.] I shall take an opportunity, if Her Majesty's Government decline to lay it on the Table, of producing it in some other way; and I venture to think that when published it will not bear out the remarks of the right hon. Gentleman. [Cries of "Order!"]

MR. SPEAKER

The matter cannot be debated at this stage.

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

I beg to give Notice that I will to-morrow ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, with the consent of myself, he will lay the Correspondence before the House?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

There are two parties to this Correspondence—the Earl of Iddesleigh and the right hon. Gentleman; and, of course, I cannot make a promise without consulting with the Earl of Iddesleigh.

MR. ARTHUR ARNOLD

The right hon. Gentleman will have an opportunity of consulting the Earl of Iddesleigh to-day; and, therefore, I beg to give Notice that I will ask him to-morrow whether he will present the Correspondence?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

I shall be happy to answer the Question, Sir, if asked by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Reading (Mr. Shaw Lefevre).