§ MR. MACDONALDasked the First Commissioner of Works, If he will lay a Return, in the form of which Notice has been given, upon the Table of the House, giving an account of all the Slab Memorials, Tablets, Busts, Statuettes, and other Monuments that have been erected in Westminster Abbey in recognition of the dead since 1800?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREI have no right to call upon the Dean and Chapter for any such Return as the hon. Member asks for. I have, however, communicated with the Dean on the subject. He informs me that all the information which the hon. Member asks for as to the tablets, busts, and monuments which have been erected since 1800 is to be found in published histories of the Abbey, and in a small popular account of it sold outside the Abbey for 1s. If the hon. Member prefers to examine these monuments on the spot, the Dean will undertake to show them to him, and to any other Members who may accompany him, in the course of half-an-hour, at any time he will name. With reference to the information required as to the fees, the Dean says that the fees for private monuments vary from £200 for a bust upwards, according to the size of the monument. The fees go entirely to the maintenance of the fabric, and not to the private emolument of the Dean or any other member of the Chapter. He adds that the space in the Abbey is very limited, the honour of a monument being very much coveted, the disfigurement occasioned by disproportionate monuments very incongruous, and the expense of the fabric of the Abbey very great. I would suggest, therefore, to my hon. Friend that, as his Motion is blocked by the hon. and learned Member for Bridport (Mr. Warton), he should accept the Dean's offer. He will spend a moat delightful 950 half-hour, under the guidance of a man who, beyond all his predecessors, has exercised a wise and generous discrimination in offering a place in the Abbey to the memorials of distinguished men.
§ MR. MACDONALDfurther asked the First Commissioner of Works, If he is aware that the bust erected to the memory of the late Sir Rowland Hill within the Westminster Abbey cost £200; and, whether he is further aware that the fees for allowing it to be placed there amounted to the sum of £201 1s. and to what purpose is such money applied under the term "fabric?"
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREsaid, that this Question had been already answered.
§ MR. MACDONALDgave Notice that when the Estimates of the First Commissioner of Works were proceeded with he should move their entire rejection, and call the attention of the House to the scandal of selling places in such a venerable Institution.