§ MR. BLUNDELL MAPLE (Camber-well, Dulwich)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, at the Patent Office in Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, there are now about 700,000 designs, the registration period of which has expired, and if it is in contemplation to have them destroyed; and, would it be possible for these designs to be permanently classified and preserved, that artizans and others might have the benefit of access to them?
§ * THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD TRADE (Sir M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.There are 504 volumes of expired designs in the Patent Office. I have been in communication with the Master of the Rolls and the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education with regard to their removal to South Kensington. The Master of the Rolls has assented to their removal, and the Department of Science and Art have applied to the Treasury that authority may be granted for the provisional occupation of part of the wall space of a room in the Exhibition galleries in Queen's Gate, but the Treasury refuse sanction to such an arrangement.