DR. KENNYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will take steps to put the grant in aid to the National Gallery of Ireland on a similar basis to that of the grant to the National Gallery of England; i.e., to permit it to accumulate from year to year, at the discretion of the Commissioners, and to allow the Commissioners to carry over the unspent balance of the grant from one financial year to the following year, so as to allow accumulation for the purpose of purchasing more valuable works than can be acquired under the existing system?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir J. T. HIBBERT,) OldhamThe Treasury have received no complaints of the working of the system of dealing with the annual grants to the National Gallery in Ireland, which has been long in force, and I am not aware that any portion of the grant has been surrendered to the Exchequer of late years; but I am afraid that it would not be possible to turn the annual grant into a "grant in aid" unless there was an endowment in aid of which it could be granted.