§ MR. CANDLISHsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, If there will be any objection on the part of the Government to place a statue of Oliver Cromwell in Westminster Hall, between the statues of Charles I. and Charles II.?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, in reply, that in the year 1863 the final Report of the Fine Arts Commission was presented to Parliament. That Report recommended that statues of British Sovereigns—of the Royal Houses of Stuart and Brunswick—should be executed, and placed in the Royal Gallery. The Government of the day made a proposal to that effect to Parliament, and Parliament assented to it. Since then eight, he believed, of those statues had been either completed or were now in progress, and as they were completed they were placed in the Royal Gallery; but when placed, it was apparent that neither in size nor character were they suited to that apartment. Two years ago it was suggested by the 1451 architect of the Palace that the experiment should be tried of placing some of them in Westminster Hall, and last year the House voted a sum with a view to such an experiment. Without going into the historical researches pointed at in the Notice given of another Question on that subject by the hon. Baronet (Sir Henry Winston-Barron), who proposed to ask whether he (Lord John Manners) had read a work called The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, he could say that it was not his intention to propose to the House a Vote for the erection of a statue of Oliver Cromwell in the series of Sovereigns of the Royal Houses of Stuart and Brunswick.
§ MR. CANDLISHsaid, he would put his Question in another form. In the event of the public or of private persons executing a statue of Oliver Cromwell, would the Government allow it to be placed in Westminster Hall?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, that if the hon. Gentleman would give him notice of the Question he wished to put, he (Lord John Manners) would be happy to answer it on a future occasion.