The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-10 00:00:00

SUPPLY.

The house then went Tn—to. committee of supply on the
civil service estimates. The sum of 414,915!. was voted for
the repair and maintenance of public palaces.
On the vote for 105,437 f. fur public buildings, a desultory
discussion ensued, in the course of which the project for
the reconstr..ction of the National Gallery was canvassed,
and the Chief Commissioner of Works was invited to give
a pledge the present unsightly structure should not
be allowel to form a portion of the new building.
Mr. COW I'EK, the Chief Commissioner of Works, ex-
plained that the selected architects had been requested to
send in ite,i4its for the new gallery with and without the
retention of the present objectionable building, and that
possibly seven years might elapse before the new gallery
would he completed. With regard to the National Por-
trait Gallery, it was intended to place it under the same
roof as the National Gallery ; and, so far as the Royal
Academy was concerned, it was understood that they were
to turn out as soon as they procure accommodation else-
where. .

The vote was then agreed to ; as were also votes O
12,0001. for the furniture of public offices and 98,7691. for
royal pariis :ind pleasure grounds.
On the vote of 61,090/ for the new houses of parlia- i
went,
Mr. D. GRIFFITH called attention to the contracted
and incom eaient accommodation of the House of Com-
mons, where, he said, there was not even a seat for each
of the li;-; members who constituted the chamber. Nay,
more, o.l:tit to the arrangement of the benches, it was
impoesiMe for independent members to find seats without
trenching on the space apportioned by custom to whigs,
tones, or r
The 11..11. gentleman was followed by Mr. Hope, Mr.
liankey. tool Sir G. Bowyer, who offered some practical
suggestion' for making the present limited accommodation
more avait•iile, not only for members themselves, but also
fur peers. '• strangoi 4." and ladies.
The !HA NCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER did not con-
sider that nay good would arise from providing additional
accommod.ition for independent members, and reminded
the house of the caustic observation of Mr. Burke, that an
indepetiiient member" was a member that was not to be
depended upon. The only object of having a semi-circular
chamber siiailar to that in France and America would be
to meet :itc convenience of hon. gentlemen who might not
desire tliat their political conversions should be too dis-
tinctly noticed.
This observation brought up Mr. Honastatc, who, fancy-
ing that it had some persorml application to himself, said
that if he wanted to find an example of a change of po-
litical opinion, he need not go further than to the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer himself, whose conversion had
been rev: "cable if not edifying.
b The vote was agreed to, as also were the following:—
British E., baasy Houses at Paris, Constantinople, and
Madrid. 1.44.../.; IVestminster-bridge, 7,52 a/.; new Foreign-
office, Mt.:-.00/.; Probate Court and Registries, 23,500/.;
Public-offices site, 51,000/.; Public Record Repository,
27,070/... nil 100. on account of the long-expected
oouchant !ions for the Nelson column.
On the vote of 6,300!. for the Patent-office,
Mr. 110VILL called attention to the present over-
crowde 1 state of that office, and urged the necessity of im-
proving the efficiency awl usefulness of the present sys-
tem of patents, and securing the application for those
purposes of the fees paid by patentees. He contended
that the pioposeil additions to the existing Patent-office
were wholly inadequate to the requiremeuts of the busi-
ness transacted therein. He pressed the postponement of
the vote.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL observed that it was time
to deal with the whole question of patents. It was matter
of opinion if there should be any system of patents at all,
and it would be necessary to decide on that point before
any refonus were made in the existing system. The pre-
sent vote was only a completion of previous votes for works
close or. completion.
The debate continued some time before the vote was
agreed to.
The house having resumed, subsequently went into
committee on Crown Lands Acta, when on the motion of
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, certain mole-
lions were Agee.' to, including one to make provisions for
the enjoyment by her Majesty during her life or pleosnre
of Claremont House, together with certain lands settled
by the act of parliament passed in the reign of George 111.
The E.cchequer and Audit Departments Bill passed
through committee.
Seveml other bills were advanced a stage and the house
adjourned at the minutes past 1.

CAKeEsrEr-s' STraKz.—The journeymen carpen-
ter at Exeter and two or three other places in the west of
England are out on strike in consequence of the masters
having refused to accede to the demand for an advance in
the weekly wages of 3s. The average pay at present is
21s. The Amalgamated Society of Operative Carpenters
and Joiners have agreed to allow every man on strike 12s.
per week. _

SIN LN R AcciDENT. —A dangerous accident
occurred at Plymouth on Monday morning, by which six
women narrowly e”caped suffocation. The schooner
Ebenezer, of Leith, captain and owner Robert Watson,
was discharging potatoes from Leith alongside a quay in
Sutton harbour. Eight Irishwomen were at work in the
hold loading baskets with the potatoes, when by their
tnoautioualy taking away a quantity of the potatoes that
supported a temporary bulkhead the bulkhead gave way,
and six of the women were immediately buried under
several tuns of potatoes. Assistance was very promptly
rendered the women, and three of them were soon extri-
cated, but the other three were above an hour under the
potatoes before they could be got out. Four of the women
were taken to the South Devon Hospital, where, fortu-
nately, it was found that although they had been badly
bruised, there were no bones broken. One woman had,
however, dislocated a collar bone.
CRYSTAL PALACE.-ONE SHILLING DAT. -MON-
DAT, APRIL —Admissions on payment, 1,993 ; ditto by
semen tickets, 651 ; total 'Miters, 2,644.