§ MR. MIDDLEMORE (Birmingham, N.)To ask the Prime Minister whether the Government or the trustees of the National Gallery, or both of these bodies, have the power to refuse to hang pictures, which may be offered them for that purpose by the trustees of the Chantrey Bequest Fund, if they consider such pictures unsuitable for permanent exhibition; and whether they have power to return to the trustees such picture as they may consider it to be unadvisable to retain.
(Answered by Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman.) The Treasury letter of 11th November, 1898, to the Royal Academy gave the trustees of the National Gallery no power to reject Chantrey pictures; and by a letter of 29th November 1898 the trustees concurred in the Treasury arrangement.