§ MR. SERJEANT HEMPHILL (Tyrone, N.)I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether, by an agreement entered into in June, 1890, between the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education and the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Irish Academy made over to the Committee of Council in trust for the public their collection of antiquities, coins, and medals, with all future additions thereto; whether he is aware that the bronze bell of Ballymena, found in 1870 in the county of Antrim, was lately offered by Mr. Robert Day, of Cork, to the Royal Irish Academy to be placed in the museum, and refused on behalf of the academy; and whether steps will be taken whereby such valuable objects of antiquity as this bell shall not be lost to the national collection of Irish antiquities.
§ THE VICE-PEESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge UniversityThe answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. With regard to the second and third paragraphs the Committee of Council have no information, as the Royal Irish Academy is not under their jurisdiction.