Mr. W. Fowler, M.P. for Cambridge, and an eminent banker,
has withdrawn his name from the Commission of Inquiry into the Depression of Trade, which leaves Professor Bonamy Price and Mr. Jamieson almost the only known economists on it. The truth is that the Commission has been so ill-equipped from its start that it is almost to be hoped that it may be knocked on the head after the General Election. If Lord Iddesleigh had been really anxious to give weight to the Commission he should, before nominating any one, have gone to Lord Hartington and asked him to nominate a sufficient number of eminent Liberals to give the Commission real weight with that party. It would have been very difficult for Lord Hartington to refuse such an offer as that without putting himself wrong with the country and incurring the imputation of party spirit. Indeed, it seems pretty clear, from the grounds assigned by Lord Hartington for not encouraging Mr. Lefevre to accept a place on the Commission, that had he been offered securities for the co-operation of a suffi- cient number of eminent Free-traders, he would not have advised Mr. Lefevre to decline the place offered him. But Lord Iddes- leigh mismanaged the whole affair ; and now, whether the Com- mission concludes its labours or not, it is almost certain that it will command very little weight with the country. It is, in fact, almost stillborn.
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