§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether his attention has been directed to the fact that, on 13th April 1772, a motion was made and was carried without a division for a Select Committee of the House of Commons, consisting of 31 Members, to inquire into the nature and state of the East India Company and other affairs of the East Indies, and the oppression and arbitrary conduct of the Company's servants; and, whether he will consider the propriety of inviting the House of Commons, in the case of the South African Chartered Company, to follow the precedent unanimously adopted in 1772 in the similar case of the East India Company.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN,) Birmingham, W.My attention had been called to the precedent of more than a century ago referred to in the hon. and learned Member's Question; but if a Parliamentary Inquiry is decided upon I prefer the later precedent of the proposal for a Joint Committee in 1886.