MR. COWPERsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Commissioner of Works whether the intention he lately signified with respect to the Wellington Monument was to give (in disregard of the decision of the Judges) the preference to the design numbered eighteen over the designs which obtained premiums; or whether he intends to employ Mr. Stevens to make another design more suitable for erection in the side Chapel of the Cathedral without affording to any other sculptors an opportunity of competition in respect to the new site; and also whether he does not think that it would be desirable, as the site had been changed, there should be a fresh competition.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, that with regard to the question which the right hon. Gentleman had put to him, he must answer, in the first place, that he had not stated it to be his intention to give the preference to a design which had not obtained a premium over a design which had. On the contrary, when referring to this subject on a former occasion, he distinctly stated that he felt it his duty to respect the choice of the Commissioners by adopting one of the designs they had singled out for a premium. He thought he had some reason, therefore, to complain of the terms in which the right hon. Gentleman had couched his question. With regard to the second question, he begged leave to say that he did not think it would be necessary or desirable to enter 418 into a second competition for a design; and he could only add that he thought that, by a certain adaptation of the design No. 18 which could be made, a monument worthy of the great man whose memory it was intended to celebrate, and of the new site selected for it, would be insured.
§ On the Motion that the House, at its rising, do adjourn to Monday,