§ VISCOUNT CHELSEArose to inquire of the Chief Commissioner of Works, whether any steps had been taken with a view to the erection of a public monument to the memory of the late Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's Cathedral; and, if not, what were the intentions of the Government on the subject? He trusted that the Chief Commissioner of Works was prepared on the part of the Government, either to ask the House to grant the necessary means, or, if they already existed, to place them at his disposal, for the purpose of enabling him to fulfil a duty which had been too long neglected. While he admitted that the stirring events of the last few years—the great sacrifices and exertions which the country had been called upon to make—might account to a certain degree for the fact that no steps had yet been taken to testify the reverence in which England held the memory of one of her most illustrious sons, yet he thought that nothing could justify the wilful and persevering neglect of an obligation so eminently incumbent upon us. He should be sorry to believe that the national grief for what all admitted to be a national calamity would not prove as deep-seated and permanent as it was sincere and universal; but both in foro conscientiœ and at the bar of public opinion throughout Europe we should be justly chargeable with one of the most heinous imputations that could rest upon a nation—that of fickleness and ingratitude—if all the grief we could feel for departed greatness was evidenced in the gorgeous and transient ceremony of one short day and in the wail that rose from the hearts of thousands as they greeted those venerable remains when borne to their last home. He had been given to understand that there remained yet available a very large balance of the sum voted to defray the expenses of the late Duke of Wellington's funeral, and he would suggest that no 1240 better or more fitting employment could be discovered for that money than the completion of a monument in the Cathedral of St. Paul, which should at once be a credit to the taste and munificence of the nation, an ornament to the stately edifice in which it might be placed, and a tribute worthy of the great captain whose brilliant career it might serve to commemorate.
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLsaid, that in November, 1854, his predecessor, Sir William Molesworth, acting under the advice of the President of the Royal Academy, invited four gentlemen to send in designs for a monument to be erected in St. Paul's Cathedral. These gentlemen were Baron Marochetti, Mr. Gibson, Mr. Baily, and Mr. Foley. Baron Marochetti and Mr. Gibson declined to compete. Mr. Baily and Mr. Foley sent in designs which were not of a character of which Sir William Molesworth could approve. Immediately after he (Sir B. Hall) came into the office which he had now the honour to hold he asked these gentlemen to allow him to see the models which they had sent in; and, having seen them, he entirely concurred in the decision at which Sir William Mollesworth had arrived. That was in the month of August last; and from that time to the present no further steps had been taken in the matter, for the simple reason that no money had been voted by Parliament for the purpose. In 1852, when the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Buckinghamshire was Chancellor of the Exchequer, £86,000 was voted to defray the expense of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. He (Sir B. Hall) wais happy to be able to inform the House that £24,866 remained in hand after defraying all the expenses of the funeral, with the exception of, perhaps, £400 or £500 for the tomb in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. He was instructed by his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to say that he would move that that sum should be expended in erecting a monument to the memory of the Duke of Wellington. It was his (Sir B. Hall's) intention, if the conduct of this business should be placed under his control, to call in the aid, not only of four, but of several artists of the greatest eminence in this country, in order that we might see whether the genius of England could not have something worthy of the memory of that great man whom we all desired to honour.
§ COLONEL BOLDEROsaid, he hoped that the money voted for the purpose would not, without the direct sanction of that House, be applied to another. When Mr. Foley and Mr. Baily competed for the design, the sum they were to receive for the monument was only £5,000, and not £25,000, as would now be offered; and when Sir W. Molesworth declined to receive their designs, they asked to be allowed to compete again, but were refused, and the sum of £150 each was offered them for the trouble and expense they had been put to. This they declined to receive at first, but finding they would not be allowed to produce other designs, they accepted it under protest. He had been informed that Baron Marochetti, who had refused to compete before, was to be the person selected to design the monument, but he was glad to find that the right hon. Baronet intended to throw it open to general competition, as that would be satisfactory to Messrs. Foley and Baily, who would be able to compete again, and who were artists of the highest ability and of European fame.
§ Motion agreed to.