It seems that Sir Louis Mallet has declined the place
offered him on the Commission of Inquiry into the Depression of Trade, and that Mr. Sclater Booth has joined it. This is a change which, so far as it goes, will certainly not add to its prestige. The questions which the Commission have issued to Chambers of Commerce contain the following :—" To what extent do the following questions affect trade,—changes in the relation between capital and labour ; changes in the relation between producers and distributors, and the consumers ; the fall in prices, the standard of value, restriction, inflation, or credit ; the currency ; over-production," &c. ? If the answers to such questions by all the Chambers of Commerce are to be sifted and analysed by the Commissioners, we shall be surprised if any of them come out of it with understandings unimpaired. Treatises will probably be written in answer to some of the questions, and such treatises ! We had understood Lord Iddes- leigh to intend putting, for the most part, questions to which very brief and categorical answers must be given.
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