is at present. Chiefly by this committee were
conducted the enquiries that preceded the
abolition, of the English slave-trade; but,
with that exception, its duties were light until
the close of war in eighteen hundred and
fifteen. During the long peace that followed,
and especially during the last fourteen years,
the real uses of the Board of Trade have been
developed. It has ceased to regulate colonial
affairs, and is concerned only with the
commercial state of the united kingdom.

The Board of Trade as it now stands, consists
of two paid acting members, a president and a
vice-president, three or four selected privy
councillors who are generally retired state-
functionaries, and of a number of privy-
councillors who hold official seats in the
committee, namely, the First Lord of the Treasury,
the Secretaries of State, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker
of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, the Paymaster-General,
and such officers of state in Ireland as may
happen to be English privy-councillors. Such is
the constitution and composition of the
"Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the
Consideration of all matters relating to Trade
and Foreign Plantations." But for almost all
working purposes the Board of Trade simply
consists of its president and vice-president,
and of the staff of officials under their control.
The president and vice-president, of course, go
out and come in with the ministries to which
they may belong. One sits in the lower and
the other in the upper-house, and each
receives as his salary two thousand pounds a
year. However they may privately divide
their work, the responsibility of these two
officers is not divisible; and, as one is bound to
answer to the lords, the other to the commons,
it is necessary that each should be cognisant
of all the business of his department.

It is the duty of the Board of Trade to be
as well informed as possible on all matters
relating to trade, in order to advise other departments
on questions in which the commerce of
the country is concerned. It is required to
examine and report to the Colonial-office on
all acts of the colonial legislatures affecting
trade; to direct the parliamentary course of
all government bills concerning commerce,
and to watch those which may have been
introduced by private members. It assists the
Foreign-office in the negociation of
commercial treaties. It advises the crown on all
applications by projected commercial
companies for charters of incorporation;
communicates with the great seats of commerce;
examines consular correspondence on
commercial subjects, and receives and keeps all
Foreign-office documents that concern our
trade and navigation. These functions belong
to the general scheme of the department. By
naming the chief special labours that have
been imposed upon the Board of Trade, since
the year eighteen hundred and thirty, we
shall, perhaps, best show how steadily that                                                branch of government has, of late, been
increasing in importance.

In eighteen hundred and thirty-two it was
charged with the duty of collecting and
publishing statistical information.

Since eighteen hundred and forty it has
exercised a certain degree of control over
railway companies. During about the same
length of time government schools of design
have been placed under its superintendence.

Offices for the regulation of joint stock
companies, and for the registration of designs
have also been attached to it.

In eighteen hundred and fifty it was charged
with supervision of the merchant shipping.

In eighteen hundred and fifty-one it
received large powers of control over the steam
navigation of the country.

And last year the shipping laws generally
have been consolidated and placed under its
superintendence.

The general business of this department of
state is carried on in Whitehall; but there
are detached offices elsewhere for the
transacting of certain portions of its business.
Tha annual cost of the office of the Board of
Trade—which finds work for a staff of one
hundred and twenty-four persons—is about
forty-six thousand pounds. The president
and the vice-president have the salaries
already mentioned; two joint-secretaries
receive not much less, namely, three thousand
five hundred pounds a year between them.
The private secretaries of the president and
vice-president receive respectively three
hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds a
year. An assistant secretary for the railway
department has a thousand; one for the
marine department eight hundred, growing
to a thousand by the usual annual increase.
A chief of the. statistical department has
eight hundred; his assistant four hundred
and eighty. The railway chief's assistant's
salary grows till he receives four hundred
and fifty; a legal assistant for railway
business has five hundred guineas. Three
inspectors of railways have together eleven hundred
and fifty pounds. There are two sea captains
attached to the marine department who
divide between them fourteen hundred
pounds. There is a librarian with about six
hundred, and an accountant with about nine
hundred a year. Then there are the
comptroller and deputy comptroller of corn
returns, with five hundred and four hundred
a year respectively. There are six senior,
nine second, and twelve junior clerks, with
salaries beginning at a hundred and ascending
to six hundred pounds. There are fifteen
copyists at eighty pounds a year; an office-
keeper, a housekeeper, and a dozen messengers
and porters. These people all work at
the office in Whitehall. At the office of the
registrar of merchant seamen there are
employed, a registrar, with from seven to eight
hundred, an assistant registrar, with five
hundred and a chief clerk with four hundred a