§ MR. KIMBER (Wandsworth)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, 275 Whether Her Majesty's Government will undertake, during the Recess, to consider the question of hall-marking of gold and silver wares, with a view, as soon as the state of public business may permit, to reform the Law of compulsory hall-marking, especially with regard to the watch-case trade, as unanimously recommended by the Select Committee on Hall-Marking (1878–9); and, whether Her Majesty Government will undertake to ascertain, and report to the House, the exact methods of hall-marking adopted by the Austrian and French Governments respectively, especially as regards the practice known as "the touch," with a view to its adoption, when desirable, in this Country in place of the prevailing uniform practice of "the scrape and parting assay?"
§ THE SECRETARY (Baron HENRY DE WORMS) (Liverpool, East Toxteth)With regard to the first part of the hon. Member's Question, I am not in a position at the present moment to give him a definite reply. But with respect to the second part of the Question, I shall be happy to communicate with the Foreign Office, with the view of obtaining, if possible, the particulars he is anxious to receive from the Austrian and French Governments; but, from the information at my disposal, I do not think that it would be desirable to alter the present practice of assay.