§ MR. FREELANDsaid, he would beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether his attention has been called to a Despatch from our Minister at Brussels, dated the 24th of February last, stating that on the preceding Sunday a violent thunderstorm, accompanied by an unprecedentedly heavy fall of snow, had over-spead Belgium; that twelve churches had been simultaneously struck by lightning, and that three of them had been totally destroyed and the others much injured; whether he has seen a paragraph in The Times of August 17, 1857, stating that the Flag Tower of Windsor Castle had been struck by lightning, and that about four tons of the parapet had been displaced; and whether any provision has been or is to be made for seeming the Public Buildings of this Country which are under the control of the Board of Public Works against such injuries or destruction by lightning as have occurred at Windsor Castle and in Belgium?
MR. COWPERsaid, his attention had been called by the hon. Gentleman's question to a very remarkable meteorological fact of a violent thunderstorm, accompanied by a heavy fall of snow, so that twelve churches had been simultaneously struck by lightning; but he had not thought that this very portentous event would justify this country from departing from the ordinary custom by which those buildings only which were much above the ordinary level were protected by lightning conductors. Buildings at a great elevation, such as the Palace in which they were now assembled, should be protected; but the expense would be very considerable of fitting copper conductors to all our public buildings. With regard to the statement in The Times, to which the hon. Gentleman referred, it was true that the Flag Tower of Windsor Castle had been struck by lightning, but he was happy to state that the accident had been repaired for the sum of thirty shillings.