§ SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE, (Exeter)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that the Queen's Printers are unable to supply printed copies of certain Acts of Parliament of last century's date; and that, consequently, persons requiring copies of such Acts are compelled either to procure manuscript copies, or to purchase them from a firm of law booksellers, in either case at considerable expense; and whether the Queen's Printers are required by any contract to supply, on demand copies of all Acts of Parliament; and, ii not, if he will consider the propriety of securing, by a clause in any future contract, that copies of all Statutes shall be obtainable at a fixed and reasonable price.
§ *MR. HANBURYSince 1887 the Controller of the Stationery Office hat been the Queen's Printer for Acts of Parliament. Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, who were the printers up to 1887, retained the entire stock of old Acts and are bound by contract to supply them on the old terms until that stock if exhausted. If any Public and General Act more than ten years old has beer sold out, the Controller of the Stationery 1126 Office reprints it as soon as a demand for it is received, and sells at the cheap rate at which other Acts printed by the Government are now sold.