§ DR. CAMERON (Glasgow, College Division)I beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works, whether it is true, as stated in the Glasgow Evening News, that the Board of Works has sanctioned a scheme for the restoration of Dumblane Cathedral, that "the Cathedral has been, or is to be, conveyed from the Board of Works to the Board of Manufactures" in Edinburgh, and that the Board has been entrusted with the selection of plans, and is to undertake, after the restoration, to maintain the fabric in all time coming, in consideration of a cash payment of £3,000; if the statement be true, under what Act do the Commissioners of Works propose to hand over the control of an important National Monument to the Board of Manufactures; whether, considering that the interior of the ruined Cathedral has been used as a burial ground for more than a century, he has made any arrangement for safeguarding the burial rights of families interested in connection with the proposed restoration; and whether an opportunity will be given the House of discussing the proposed transfer of this national monument to 1652 the Board of Manufactures, a body which many consider not at all a proper body to be entrusted with this work?
§ THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (Mr. PLUNKET,) Dublin UniversityThe transaction is completed. It was completed because the matter had been gone into very fully, and I have received a very influential deputation, representing as far as I could ascertain all political parties and the peoples of the different religious persuasions. While it may seem a strange body to be entrusted with such work, I believe the Board of Manufactures is really as good a body for the purpose as can be found.
§ DR. CAMERONI beg to give notice that, as there is no other way of raising the question, I will do so by moving a reduction of the right hon. Gentleman's salary.