When the United States became
independent, Burke in a scathing speech, moved and carried the abolition
of this paid Committee, which included Gibbon as its Secretary. However,
the Board of Trade could not be spared, and so it was restored by Order
in Council in 1786. Under that order the principal officers of State,
and certain members of the Privy Council, including the Archbishop of
Canterbury, have, _ex officio_, seats on the Committee, although no
record exists of His Grace having ever left his arduous duties at Lambeth
to attend the Committee. Its jurisdiction extended as trade and commerce
developed and railways appeared on the scene, and gradually it was
divided into departments, and so the _Board of Trade_ came into being.
Like Topsy it "grow'd." The Board of Trade is, in fact, a mere name, the
president being practically the secretary for trade, the vice-president
having, for 50 years past, been a Parliamentary secretary with duties
similar to those of an under-secretary of State. At present, besides the
president (who has usually a seat in the Cabinet), the Parliamentary
secretary and a permanent secretary, there are six assistant secretaries
(in late war time many more), each in charge of a department.
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