Mr. Forster moved yesterday week for a committee to inquire
into the relations between the Board of Trade and the Foreign Office. At present, when our commercial men have any repre- sentations to make on foreign tariffs or dues they must go to the Board of Trade, which writes to the Foreign Office, which com- municates with the foreign country, while time, momentum, and .
lucidity of statement are all lost in the process. You may inspire Lord Russell or Mr. Layard with commercial ideas if you take enough pains, you cannot inspire them with any real interest in those ideas ; and so it happens, as Mr. Forster put it, that
"Lord Russell, with his pen made, was waiting for the Board of Trade;
The Board of Trade, in helpless bustle, was waiting for the great Earl Russell."
Moreover, the loss of power in the double administration is not the worst. As the Foreign Office cares little for the commercial side of our diplomacy, our Ministers and agents abroad neglect that side, and use none of that unofficial influence, which is often really the most effective, to obtain alterations favourable to our trade.
France and Russia have, besides a Board of Trade, a special depart- ment in their Foreign Office for commercial relations with foreign countries. The committee was granted—reluctantly—by Mr. Layard, whose speech went to show that things are best as they are.
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