§ MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, having regard to the fact that the grant to the college of Maynooth was originally intended to educate laymen 1188 as well as candidates for the Roman Catholic priesthood, and that a lay college in connection with Maynooth was worked for eighteen years, can he explain why it was abandoned; and will he state whether the consideration of this question will be referred to the proposed Royal Commission.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have not had time to investigate the historical question my hon. friend puts to me, but, as a matter of fact, Maynooth is not now anything but a seminary, and therefore it hardly comes within the terms of reference to a Commission dealing with university education in Ireland.