Minutes of Proceedings. 39^ 



Council, 19th June, 1899. 



Bead recommeiidatioii from Pol. Lit. & Antiqq. Committee of Hth 

 June, 1899:— 



" That it be a recommendation to the Council to communicate with 

 the Irish Government on the subject of the Gold ornaments found in 

 Ireland in 1896, acquired last year by the British Museum, with a view 

 of urging that effect should be given to the last paragraph but two of 

 the Eeport of the Committee of the Treasury, and that the objects may 

 be transferred to the Academy's Museum as soon as possible." 



" Resolved — That the following letter be forwarded to the Under- 

 Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, on behalf of the Council : — 



Royal Ieish Academy, 



19, Dawson-sxreet, Dublin", 



20a June, 1899. 



SlE, 



I am directed by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy to ask 

 you to be so good as to lay before His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant 

 the Council's respectful request to be informed whether his Excellency 

 is yet in a position to indicate the course which Her Majesty's 

 Government intend to take with respect to the Gold ornaments found 

 in Ireland in 1896, and subsequently purchased by the British Museum. 



His Excellency is aware that when the Council of the Academy 

 first heard of the ' find ' they took steps to call the immediate atten- 

 tion of the Chief Crown Solicitor to the matter, and then having done 

 so refrained from further active interference at the time, not from 

 apathy or indifierence, but believing it to be the province, as it was in 

 the power alone, of the Executive and Law Officers of the Crown to 

 prosecute the necessary inquiries respecting the circumstances of the 

 case, which, when ascertained, led the Law Officers to form the opinion 

 that the objects were distinctly Treasure Trove. 



The Committee subsequently appointed by the Treasury to inquire 

 into the cii'cumstances of these gold ornaments, and into the relations 

 of the three IS"ational Museums of the Kingdom, with regard to the 



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