§ MR. DILLWYNsaid, he wished to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, If it be true that the Publication of the Art Catalogue is still continued by the Department of Science and Art in Notes and Queries instead of in The Times; if there was not an understanding between the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education and the House of Commons that this publication should be discontinued; and, if it be still the intention of the Department of Science and Art to persist in the formation of that Catalogue, what will be the ultimate cost of that undertaking, including in the estimate the payment of the whole staff employed in it; whether the persons so employed be supernumeraries or a portion of the usual staff at South Kensington?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGU, in reply, said, that the publication of the Art Catalogue was being continued in Notes and Queries instead of in The Times. The hon. Members for Swansea and Galway had last year objected to "advertising the Catalogue in The Times," as a reference to Hansard would show; while they evidently contemplated the continuance of the formation of the Catalogue. The formation of the Catalogue had been decided upon by Lord Granville, in 1864, and at various times in 1865 and 1866. In 1865–6, a 1219 vote of £500 was taken for that object; in 1866–7, a rote of £1,500; and in August, 1867, a vote of £2,500 was taken in the Estimates of 1867–8, for the Universal Art Catalogue, and other catalogues and inventories. Materials had now been collected for the formation of the whole Universal Art Catalogue. Several estimates of various modes of compiling it were laid before Parliament last year on the Motion of the hon. Member for Swansea. He believed that the total cost, including the payment of the whole staff employed on it, and leaving a margin for contingencies, would be £8,000, of which a large part had already been paid.
§ MR. CHILDERSDid I understand the noble Lord to say that Earl Granville first proposed the publication of such a Catalogue?
§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUHe sanctioned it, first, in the year 1864.