A duel between Lord Salisbury and Lord Granville on the
refusal of the Liberals to join the Commission, followed Lord Iddesleigh's speech, Lord Salisbury taunting them with a wish to " boycott " the inquiry. Thereupon Mr. Shaw-Lefevre sent to the papers his correspondence with Lord Iddesleigh on the subject, which certainly justifies him in assuming that there was no intention at all to base the method of investigation on Free-trade assumptions,—the only scientific basis possible for such an inquiry,—and that there was an intention to gather together in the Commission a group of men embodying very extensive experience in various trades, without any common convictions as to the rationale of trade. Lord Iddesleigh has since published a memorandum on the procedure of the Com- mission, from which it appears that he intends to have a little army of Assistant Commissioners, who are to report on the economical condition of various industries and various localities, and to suggest the witnesses whom it will be desirable for the Commission to examine personally, and the line which the examination ought to take. The depression of agriculture, too, is to be embraced in the scope of the inquiry. On the whole, we look for a huge mass of not very enlightening figures and facts as likely to result from the labours of the Com- mission.
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