§ MR. DILLWYNsaid, he would beg to ask the noble Lord the Vice President of 623 the Committee of Council on Education, Whether there would be any objection to grant the Return for which he (Mr. Dillwyn) had given notice of his intention to move as an unopposed Return?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGU, in reply, said, there would be no objection to grant as an unopposed Return the information for which the hon. Member asked, which was an account of all the expenses connected with the French Exhibition. There was one point, however, which should be explained. At Easter the Lord President and he went over to Paris to investigate the accounts of the Exhibition. They went minutely into them, and thinking the appropriation in some cases was not quite in accordance with the intentions of the Treasury, as stated to the House in February, passed a Minute ordering all the accounts, vouchers, and supporting documents to be sent to the Treasury and forwarded to the Audit Office. No blame attached to any one; for, as the heads of expenditure were not determined until February, it was impossible to appropriate the expenditure before that time. As the Exhibition was now open, and the most part of the work terminated, they also determined on a very large reduction of the weekly expenditure; and the staff was cut down accordingly. As an additional precaution they also ordered a weekly return of the current expenditure to be transmitted.