MacDonnell, Dr. Mark A. Morgan, J. Lloyd (Carmarthen) Norton, Capt. Cecil William O'Brien, James F. X. (Cork) O'Kelly, Jas. (Roscommon, N.) Soames, Arthur Wellesley O'Malley, William O'Shaughnessy, P. J. Palmer, Sir Chas. M. (Durham) Reckitt, Harold James Redmond, John E. (Waterford) Roberts, John Bryn (Eifion) Samuel, Herbert L. (Cleveland) Seely, Maj.J.E.B(Isle of Wight) NOES. Boulnois, Edmund Campbell, Rt.Hn.J.A(Glasgow Soares, Ernest J. Spencer, Rt. Hn.C.R(Northants Stevenson, Francis S. Tennant, Harold John Thomas, Abel (Carmarthen, E.) Walton, J. Lawson (Leeds, S.) Woodhouse, Sir J.T(Hudd'rsf'd Yoxall, James Henry TELLERS FOR THE AYES-Mr. Colomb, Sir Jn. Charles Ready Dalrymple, Sir Charles Digby, John K. D. Wingfield- Cochrane, Hon. Thos. H. A. E. Durning-Lawrence, Sir Edwin Coddington, Sir William Cohen, Benjamin Louis Dyke, Rt. Hn. Sir Wm. Hart Faber, Edmund B. (Hants, W.) Faber, George Denis (York) Houston, Robert Paterson Hutton, John (Yorks., N. R.) Knowles, Sir Lees Murray, Rt. Hn. A. G. (Bute) Reid, James (Greenock) Main Question again proposed, Roberts, Jamuel (Sheffield) Strutt, Hon. Charles Hedley Tufnell, Lieut.-Col. Edward Wyndham, Rt. Hon. George Wyndham-Quin, Major W. H. Yerburgh, Robert Armstrong Debate to be resumed To-morrow. Adjourned at half after Twelve An Asterisk (*) at the commencement of D > coch indicates revision by the Member. The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had laid upon the Table the Certificates from the Examiners that the further Standing Orders applicable to the following Bills have been complied with:Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Electric Power [H.L.]; Leicestershire and Warwickshire Electric Power [H.L.]; Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company [H.L.]; London, Chatham, and Dover Railway (H.L.]; Metropolitan District Railway H.L.; Metropolitan Railway [H.L.]; Trafford Park Dock and Railway [H.L.]; Victoria University of Yorkshire [H.L.; West Metropolitan Railway (Abandonment) [H.L.]; West Metropolitan Railway (Extension of Time) [H.L.]; Elysée Palace Hotel Company [H.L.] Also the Certificate that no further Standing Orders are applicable to the following Bill-Preston, Chorley, aud Horwich Tramways [H.L.] And also the Certificate that the Standing Orders applicable to the following Bill have been complied with :--MidCheshire Tramways. York Town and Blackwater Gas Bill [H.L.]; Weston-super-Mare Grand Pir Bill [H.L.]; Matlock and District Gas Bill [H.L.]; Portmadoc, Beddgelert, and South Snowdon Railway Bill [H.L.]; Great Western Railway Bill [H.L.]. Read 2a. RETURNS, REPORTS, ETC. NAVY ESTIMATES. with explanation of differences. Estimates for the year 1904-1905; Explanatory statement by First Lord of the Admiralty. AFRICA, No. 2 (1904). Report on the trade and commerce of the Somaliland Protectorate, for the year 1902-1903. COMMERCIAL, No. 1 (1904). Reports on tariff wars between certain European States. MUSICAL COPYRIGHT COMMITTEE. Report of the Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to inquire into the question of musical copyright; with separate report by Mr. J. Caldwell, M.P., and minutes of evidence. IRISH LAND COMMISSION Return for the month of December, DUCHY OF LANCASTER. And also the Certificates that the 1903. Presented (by Command), and Standing Orders applicable to the follow-ordered to lie on the Table. ing Bills have not been complied with :Middlesborough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Thorley Tramways; London United Tramways; London United Tramways (Railways). The same were ordered to lie on the Table. London County Council (Tramways and Improvements) Bill; Rotherham Corporation Bill; Trafford Park Dock and Railway Bill [H.L.]; Middlesborough, Stockton-onTees, and Thorley Tramways Bill; London United Tramways Bill; London United Tramways (Railways) Bill. Examiners' Certificates of non-compliance with the Standing Orders referred to the Standing Orders Committee on Thursday next. Govan Burgh Electricity Bill [H.L.J. Presented, and read 1a. Bristol Tramways (Extensions) Bill Account of the receipts and disbursements of the Duchy of Lancaster in the year ended 21st December, 1903; also, a separate account of the capital of the said Duchy to the same date. INEBRIATES' ACT, 1898. Regulations for the management of State inebriate reformatories in Ireland. Reduction of the National Debt account of "The Fund for Military Savings Banks." II. (Savings Banks and Friendly Societies)-Account of the gross amount [H.L.]. Presented; read 1a; and referred of all sums received and paid by the to the Examiners. VOL CXXX. [FOURTH SERIES.] Commissioners for the Reduction of the E National Debt on account of banks for savings and friendly societies in Great Britain and Ireland, from their commencement at 6th August, 1817, to 20th November, 1903, inclusive. Account of the several transactions. which have taken place, during the year ended 20th November, 1903, in the investment of all moneys which came into the hands of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt for savings banks and friendly societies. Account showing the aggregate amount of the liabilities of the Government to the trustees of savings banks and friendly societies respectively on 20th November, 1903, &c. Laid before the House (pursuant to COMMITTEE OF SELECTION. L. Balfour L. Ribblesdale. E. Waldegrave V. Churchill with the Chairman of Committees, were appointed a Committee to select and propose to the House the names of the Five Lords to form a Select Committee for the consideration of each opposed Private Bill. STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE. Appointed: The Lords following, with the Chairman of Committees, were named of the Committee: M. Salisbury. V. Churchill. | All petitions relating to the Standing Orders which shall be presented during the present session referred to the Committee unless otherwise ordered. Polling Districts (County Councils) Boroughs) Bill [H.L.]-(The Lord Ribbles FISCAL POLICY. THE EARL OF CREWE, in pursuance of Notice, rose "to ask His Majesty's Governmen what steps they propose to take to give effect to the policy of negotiation and retaliation' announced by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 2nd February; and to move that no duty upon imports into the United Kingdom colonies and dependencies, should be from foreign countries, or from British imposed, modified, or removed without the formal consent of Parliament to each such proposal." He said: My Lords, it often happens in the progress of the business of your Lordships' House, that Questions are put and Motions cussion than of obtaining information, made rather with a view to exciting disand I have seen it stated that on this occasion our object in bringing forward (L. Privy Seal) L. Zouche of Har- this subject is not so much to obtain D. Bedford. D. Marlborough. yngworth. L. Barnard. D. Northumberland L. Balfour. M. Lansdowne, information as to start a debate. It seems to be assumed that our demand for information is not a genuine one, and that our ignorance of the intentions of His Majesty's Government is comparable to that which is sometimes announced by learned Judges on the bench who, for an object which I have never been able to understand, sometimes profess to be unacquainted with the most elementary and notorious facts of ordinary life. But I can assure your Lordships that with us that is not the case. We are genuinely desirous of obtaining information from His Majesty's Government on a subject. which we consider to be of the first importance, and upon which, in spite of a long political campaign during the recess, and in spite of a brilliant though rather one sided debate in another place lasting upwards of a full week, the intentions of His Majesty's Government are still to a temporary. I remember some years ago great extent undeclared and obscure. I took part in an inquiry, in the course companies were obliged by Statute, when of which it appeared that certain great asked by those who dealt with them, to appeared that when that information was supply certain information. It also given it bore very little reference to the actual facts of the case. We asked the learned counsel who appeared for the companies how this could be explained, and he informed us that the reply of the companies was what was known as technical reply. This is an agreeable phrase which I propose to adopt on this occasion, and I say that any statement of the Government with reference to their dissociation from Mr. Chamberlain's proposals can only be regarded as being of a merely technical character. I propose mainly almost entirely-to deal with what are known as the Governmeat proposals for retaliation and negotiation. At the same time, it is so uncertain whether those proposals are in fact to be taken as standing alone, or whether they are to be taken in connection with the wider proposals of Mr. Chamberlain, that I cannot affect to be surprised if in the course of the debate other noble Lordsparticularly those who left the Government on account of those very proposals of Mr. Chamberlain-allow the discussion to range over a somewhat wider field. It is perfectly true that at this moment Mr. Chamberlain's proposals are less in evidence than they were in the autumn months. Their distinguished author has gone abroad in search of a well-earned holiday, after the fatigues of a campaign which, though we cannot regard it with sympathy, we regard at any rate with admiration for the combative energy which sustained it.. It is also true that during the debate in another place there was not much outside defence, if I may use the phrase, of those proposals of Mr. Chamberlain. It is also true that when a by-election takes place, and the travelling mountebanks of the Tariff Reform League swoop down upon the constituency, the distracted Government candidate offers them, so to speak, 6d. to go and perform in the next street. But, after all, Mr. Chamberlain will return, as we hope, restored in health after his foreign tour; and so long as the Parliamentary candidates who adopt Mr. Chamberlain's programme in its entirety receive, as they have been receiving, the special benediction of the Prime Minister and of His Majesty's Government, and so long as among the few voices raised on behalf of Mr. Chamberlain's policy in the debate in another place, there are voices which come from the Treasury Bench, and, above and beyond all, so long as the finances of the country are committed to a gentleman whom we all respect, but who has adopted in their entirety the proposals of his distinguished father-so long as that condition of things exists, we certainly shall maintain that any public dissociation of the Government policy from the policy of Mr. Chamberlain is merely collusive and probably only may be a a I do not propose in the remarks I have to make to your Lordships to touchexcept possibly by way of illustrationupon the question of colonial preference, of a food tax, or of a general tariff. I propose to confine my observations to the question of retaliation, which is understood to be in some form or other the policy of His Majesty's Government. Retaliation very great matter or it may be a very small matter, and our object in initiating this debate is to discover whether the Government mean it to be large or small. So far as could be gathered from the remarks of Mr. Balfour during the recess, I should certainly have concluded that he regarded it as a great matter. At Sheffield, on 1st October, among some statements which were not over clear, Mr. Balfour made one very clear statement. He put it in the form of a question and answer, which seems to have been adapted from the service for the Ordination of Priests and Deacons in the Church of England. He imagined himself to be addressed by some hierarch of protection, such for example as Mr. Henry Chaplin, who may be held, I think, to possess the apostolical succession from Lord George Bentinck, both as a protectionist and in other and more cheerful fields of enterprise. Mr. Balfour supposed himself to be asked, "Do you desire to alter fundamentally the fiscal tradition which has prevailed during the last two generations? The answer is, "I do." From that it is necessary to assume that Mr. Balfour, at any rate at |