§ MR. MORTON (Peterborough)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, as reported in the Times of the 16th instant, the Newfoundland Assembly have rejected the French Shore Bill, and whether it is correct that that Bill was altered after three of the delegates, Messrs. Emerson, Movine, and Munroe, had left London; and, if so, to what extent the Bill has been altered, and why?
§ BARON H. DE WORMSThe Bill has been thrown out. The three delegates named left while the negotiations were in progress; when, of course, the Bill had not assumed its final form. But the Premier, Sir William White-way, and Mr. Harvey, who is also a Member of the Colonial Government, remained, and were distinctly understood to hold full power to continue the discussion, otherwise the negotiations must have come to an end. The principle of the Bill—namely, the appointment of Judicial Commissioners and the creation of a Court—had been agreed to before the three delegates left, and the subsequent alterations related to the details of the measure, and could not be explained within the limits of an answer.