§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he has yet considered the precedents furnished to him with reference 640 to the publication of Cabinet Memoranda; and, if so, whether he has any statement to make modifying his previous decision with regard to the publication of the Memorandum submitted by him to the Cabinet embracing propositions in favour of preferential tariffs and the taxation of food.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI thank the hon. Gentleman for his courtesy in sending mc a letter which he afterwards published in the newspapers. But the precedent to which he referred in that interesting communication was one in which Mr. Forster, in order to verify his statement with regard to a particular conversation alleged to have occurred with the then hon. Member for Clare, read out a Cabinet Memorandum which he had himself prepared for his colleagues. Mr. Gladstone referred to that transaction without expressing either approval or disapproval, and, without saying whether it was right or wrong, it is evidently in quite a different category from the transaction which so exercises the mind of the hon. Gentleman.
§ MR. JOHN ELLISHas the right hon. Gentleman refreshed his mind with his own speech on that occasion, on 15th May, 1882, in which he advanced some broad propositions?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI rarely read my own speeches, and I confess I have not done so on the present occasion.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLsaid in that speech the right hon. Gentleman highly approved of Mr. Forster's action.