* THE EARL OF MAYOasked the Lord President of the Council whether he was willing to include in next year's Estimates a sum for commencing the new buildings for the Royal College of Science in Dublin, the necessity for which had been acknowledged by successive Governments for several years. He said that the Department of Science and Art had been urging the necessity for new buildings in the Royal College of Science for a long time. For want of more room the students could not be properly accommodated in the laboratory. The Assaying Department was carried on in the lowest basement, where gas had to be burned during the winter. The Physics laboratory was overcrowded, and the accommodation generally was excessively bad. He wished to make a point of the fact that successive Governments had acknowledged this want for several years?
§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (The DUKE of DEVONSHIRE)said that for many years past communications on this subject had been going on between the Science and Art Department, the Irish Government, and the Treasury. Those communications had recently been renewed. There had been, he thought, some misconception on the part of the Treasury as to the objects for which it existed. He hoped that the communications which were now in progress might have the effect of removing that misunderstanding, and that some progress might shortly be made in the matter. He assured the noble Earl that he would be most willing to propose for the consideration of the Treasury an estimate for this purpose, but it was not entirely in his power to say that the Treasury would be prepared to sanction it. [Laughter.]