The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-01 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

1.-

fIOUSE OF LORDS, March 31.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the Wool-
ale at Five o'clock.
THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
- The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said he had given
tice that he would move an address to be presented to
er Majesty on the subject of the report made yesterday
curn
the Select Committee on the building of the Houses
tf Parliament. He thought they might move the address
pew and discuss it and they could agree to the wording at
e future time.
The Duke of WELLINGTON thought it would be
better to wait till they saw what the other House of
Parliament would do. -It was his opinion that both
Souses should agree in the mode of proceeding.
, IRISH RAILWAYS.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE, after a few prelimi-
nary observations, which did not reach the gallery,
stated that the grand jury of the county of Kerry had
commissioned him to present a petition praying that
House to give as much consideration as was in their
power to the various plans of railways which were be-
fore Parliament, and begging that their Lordships
would, as far as they could consistently with their public
duty, expedite those Bias in such a manner as to give the
earliest employment to the people of Ireland. He wished
to call the attention of the House to a matter of semi
importance with reference to this petition, and he would
take this opportunity of asking his Noble Friend, the
First Lord of the Admiralty, a question with reference
to this subject. At various times, by the direction of the
Government, • surveys had been made of the south-
western coast of Ireland, with a view of establishing
a packet or military station, or both, and to
secure a good means of communication across the
Atlantic. He, therefore, wished that the Govern-
ment should make up their minds as to the
place in which such station should be plated while
these various lines of railway were under consideration.
In the embarking of capital in railways, it was impor-
tant that some plan should be adopted respecting a
packet and military station at the mouth of the 'Shannon,
at Valencia, at Pier Head, or at Bantry Bay, or some
other place that might be deemed more eligible. There
ought t 3 be some understanding with the Government
with regard to such a measure, so that those railways
should be made to answer in the best way for public
purposes. He would give no opinion as to the best
point for a station ; he merely submitted the matter to
the consideration of the Government. And if a choice
of a point was made, it should be known as soon as. pos-
fable, in order that no difficulty might be thrown in the
way of those schemes which were proposed for railway
accommodation in Ireland. He would now present the
petition, which was in favour of the construction of
railways in Ireland generally.
The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH was obliged to the
Noble Marque; for his suggestions, but he would beg
leave to inform him that the selection of a station on the
west coast of Ireland rested with the Treasury and not
with the Admiralty. With regard to the ports named
for a packet station, he thought. that Valencia w i t
not be selected. Bantry Bay was better, but Cork was
better than them both.
THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE rose to move the
address, of which he had given notice, relative to the
new Houses of Parliament. If they were about in any
way to advise the Crown upon any matter that would
touch the buildings erected for the service of the House
of Commons, thereby interfering, if not with the pri-
vilege, at least with the business of that House,
then indeed it would be necessary fur them to con-
fer with the House of Commons before they could
take any step in the matter. They, however, did no
such thing. The address referred only to the buildings
fear the sole use and service of the House of Lords. It
was a matter of fact, that the Board of Works had been
incorporated with the office of the Woods and Forests.
There could be no doubt that all palaces and buildings of
the Crown or great works of a public nature erected
in the metropolis came under the superintendence
of that department. There was, therefore, nothing
said in the address which he was about to read.
Within the last nine months the work, as regarded
their Lordships' House, had been at a stand-still.
The delay originated out of the differences that arose
between the gentlemen employed in the execution of the
work. The architect entrusted with the work, and a
scientific gentleman who had been called in to superin-
tend the ventilation and heating of the House
differed and the consequence was a total sus-
pension of the work as regseded the comple-
tion of the House. What, these did the Committee
do? They did not presume 'e undertake to settle the
difference, and he held that it would not be competent
for their Lordships or The Commons, or for both, to in-
terfere, as it was the Queen's privilege, and therefore
the Executive Government alone could interfere. The
Committee therefore referred to the Executive
Government for the interposition of their au-
thority, with a view that they would direct both
gentlemen to do their duty, and speedily and imme-
diately complete the work with which they had been
entrusted. The superintendence of the work having
fallen on the Woods and Forests' department, no other
commission or board was established for that purpose.
Now ho considered that that was unfortunate, as the
department of Woods and Forests had already so much
business thrown on them that they could not give the
works that serious attention which they deserved. It
would appear, notwithstanding, that the calculations
Made by the architect, both as to time and expense, were
erroneous; and with that view he moved for the Committee.
The Committee felt bound to make some suggestions,
Which he was happy to say had been adopted by the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests. But, notwith-
Standing this report, the Committee were powerless
Upon one point, and that a point for which they had
been appointed, namely, to accelerate the build-
ing of the House. They had not the power
to make the building go on as they wished, for they had
not the authority, and they were therefore obliged to call
Upon supreme authority to make them go on. They
had called upon the Commissioner's of Woods and
Forests. He die not think that any public building
erected by public money had ever been erected ex-
cept under the superintendence of the Board of
Public Works, and he thought it was a great
pity that in the present case they had not acted on
the same principle. He maintained that the agreement
which had been entered into had not been carried
out. He did not wish to impute blame to any one ;
it was no doubt a work of a difficult nature.
The Noble Lord concluded by moving that an address
be presented to her Majesty, praying that her M'tjesty
may be pleased to direct Mr. Barry to proceed with the
New Houses without delay, and that Dr. Reid be
directed not to interfere with the works by his plans of
ventilates)°, and that directions be given for the com-
pletioei of the 'House of Lords by the commencement of
the next session.
'The LORI) CHANCELLOR having put the motion,
Lord CANNING opposed the motion, because the
rep, er.t on which the address was first grounded had
only been bed before their L irdships the previous day.
He eonfessed that he was unwilling to take the step re-
commended by his Noble relative, inasmuch as the report
gtl.rat alluded. to had only been laid on the table
last which
ni
particularly objected , to that passage in
the report whiechPaodf a
Iref,Tence to the impediment put
to the completion the works by the proceedings of
the Board of Works. whe thought that it was itn-
possible to entertain a recommendationer of this sort, until
the evidence was laid
House in which this
impediment was sated. Thaet 13homeerd, as now constituted,
was so divided into its depart that it was not
likely that the impediments were asni,e,'
et:l,7st any
departments that been represented
to their Lordsh pa ; and he protested aye
being made by implication, until the charges
they were based were laid on the table eonfeethon which
House.
There was another passage in the addre for by his noble relative, which he conceived it winsiev'ed
competent for their Lordships to entertain, for
tie:flee;
was, that the recommendation was founded upon that
report which had been submitted to their Lordships,
but which had never been yet made known to the House
of Commons. No report as yet had been made to the
/louse of Commons upon the ventilation of the new
houses of Parliame t respecting the plans for ventila-
tion proposed by Lerl'ei whicl were alluded to
in the report before their Reid,
There had been
a resolution come to by the HoEsse. of Commons it ap-
pears, but they could not recommend any specific
e 'ft e
ceedings until the report of the Committeeh,l;eren
'
made. Then the Committees of their Lore:eel ear House
reported that the %hole of the SA,'''
proposed to be adopted under
•• ''
'tem of ventilation
Reid would require severe' •one management of Dr.
that they could not 7. years to be carried out, and ,
money on h
ore; end the expenditure of more
Then this W tiise no et seeid ~
ation of the houses of Parliament.
theliewe of not
orotomta:h a question of convenience to House of Commons, but rather
as of ventilation. But t:ell House of Commons, which
Was not so impatient as their Lordships, took a different
view of the matter. If both Houses addressed the Crown,
theacehplltticocn in ordaricewith its own views, let them consider
which the Crown would be placed by such
a course of procedure. Their views were entirely in-
consistent with the views of the other House of Parlia-
ment ; and, therefore,e.
ee sought them to pause before
they adopted the motion of his noble relative (the Mar-
quis a Clanri
hear that the Not). It
gave
him
great satisfaction to
department to which hLord(Lspoke in terms of praise of the
to beieez. He he ord Canning) had the honour
Ships pursued, • thought the course which their Lord-
his noble relatilvaeff'ranting Committees on the motion of
the object for whielri'mkth time to time, had not answered
and disputes which hadey zere appointed, as the delay
en place had increased since
they were appointed, and. had led those engaged in the
works to look for instruction to others than theirreal mas-
ters. Hew ould not presume to decide what the course should
be that their Lordshi
express his earnest lir:
mittee should be reirefftle
vestigation of facts
I ought to pursue, but he might
that the members of the. Co-
m; toand if
confine themselves to an in-
any recommendation or till they. should wish to offer
that they would do
soy mat in the shape oftoewl:e:pc4 athlr4 in—i. ; buts by a representa-
tion to the department,
u2tilionlrad been made
more than once that evening by
isniaritri:ut the wishes
Noble relative.
That Board had been ever anxious tes
rsethe one
of their Lordships, and he thought thi
most likely to expedite business, and,
give the great-- st degree of satisfaction to that P Board t (f)
wwweirolde
wheel he had the honour to be a member. These the grounds on which he trusted their Lordships
not assent to the propo-ition of his Noble relative.
Lord REDESDAI,E, having had something to do
with the preparation of the report, would wish to make
an observation or two on the subject matter contained in
it. The facts expressed in the report were very few,
and they were published to the world long ago. It was
perfectly notorious that since the year 1843, when the
Committee woe first formed, the whole of 'the evidence
taken before them was known from time to time. The
report referred to the state of the building
now and the state in which it should be.
lie would remind their Lordships that it was impossible