§ MR. KIMBER (Wandsworth)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether he is aware that the large proportion of the population of this Country, dependent entirely upon its external trade, is annually increasing by hundreds of thousands, while this external trade has during the past two years gradually declined to the extent of nearly eighty millions (representing in large part the wages of labour), and is still declining; whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared with any proposals to encourage fresh enterprise which may arrest that decline; and, in particular, whether they will take any steps to induce the spread of our population and the employment of capital over the vast unoccupied lands in the Colonies entrusted to the British Nation; and, whether Her Majesty's Government will consent to the appointment of a Select Committee upon this urgent subject?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE) (Edinburgh, Mid Lothian)My attention has been generally directed to the subject-matter of this Question. It was a subject-matter referred by the late Government to a Royal Commission. In these circumstances I could not ask the House to appoint a Select Commmittee.