§ MR. F. A. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the fact that old designs, drawings, prints, and relics illustrative of the stages of railway development in the United Kingdom are being bought up by American and French engineering agents for the proposed Museum at Chicago and the French Exhibition of 1900; and whether he will recommend to the Treasury the purchase of the more important of these objects, with the view of supplementing and completing the collection at South Kensington, and forming a National Railway Museum?
§ MR. RITCHIEI am afraid I cannot make any such general recommendation to the Treasury as that desired by the hon. Member. No doubt my right hon. Friend will carefully consider any suggestion put before him.