§ MR. W. F. D. SMITH (Strand, Westminster)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the Board have carried out the recommendations of the Select Committee on the Patent Agents Bill, 1894, particularly with regard to the third paragraph of page six of their Special Report, recommending a transfer of duties, under certain conditions, from the Chartered Institute to the Board of Trade?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADENo, Sir; the Board of Trade have not transferred the duties from the Institute to the Department, but they have endeavoured to give effect to the policy of the Committee by other means. The Institute submitted bye-laws under their Charter, and the Board recommended Amendments, framed so as to enable members of the profession of patent agents, not members of the Institute, to enter that body, and so obtain a position to take part in the government of the profession as a whole. If the proceedings under the bye-laws do not prove to have a satisfactory result, the Board have still power to transfer the duty of keeping the register from the Institute.