§ Upon the proposal that 2,000l. be granted for completing the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar-square,
1285§ MR. BROTHERTONthought that this money was quite thrown away.
§ VISCOUNT MORPETHwas afraid that it would not. If carried out according to the full original design, not less than 16,000l. would he required to complete the work; but whether they should so complete it, was a question which the Government had still under consideration. The late Government had stated that 12,000l. would complete it; but that had been found an incorrect estimate. Only 8,000l. had at present been voted.
§ MR. BORTHWICKsaid, that, as it now stood, it might be described as a Doric column with a Corinthian capital. The original design had been altered—the column had been cut down; and the right hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth had said, that if the original design had been carried out, he could not answer for the safety of Her Majesty's subjects; but if that was so, why had the design ever been adopted? And if the Government were now going to proceed with a design of their own, he should be glad to know whether the column was to be left to preach to posterity the bad taste of the age in which they lived, or whether it was to be pulled down entirely, and a more worthy monument erected to the illustrious hero whom it was intended to honour, but whose fame it really desecrated? It was disgraceful to the nation that such a monument should rise so slowly, and with so much difficulty, to their dead hero, whilst they were crowding their streets with monuments to perpetuate the fame of their living hero.
§ Vote agreed to.
§ House adjourned.