HC Deb 10 May 1850 vol 110 cc1314-5
MR. B. OSBORNE

begged to ask the hon. Member for Lancaster, whether the gallery erected in the new House of Commons last week had been pulled down, and whether the House would be prepared for the reception of Members after the Whitsuntide holydays? He also wished to ask, with reference to nine boilers which now occupied one of the quadrangles, whether Mr. Barry had submitted any estimate of their expense, and to what purpose those boilers were to be applied?

MR. T. GREENE

said, that the gallery at the further end of the House, to which he understood the hon. Member to refer, had been taken down. He believed the House would be ready for the reception of Members, in order to test its convenience, very early. [Mr. B. OSBORNE: When?] He believed it would be ready for their reception in the course of the next week; but of course their going there must to a cercain degree depend upon the state of the weather. [Laughter.] He apprehended that it would be no laughing matter for hon. Members to be confined in the new houses for six hours on an extremely cold day, because there were as yet no means of warming or ventilating it. The House was at present fitted up merely in a temporary manner; the accommodation for strangers was not completed; but if the House should be so far completed as to be fit for occupation next week, hon. Gentlemen would have an opportunity of ascertaining how far the arrangements at present made would meet their convenience. The boilers to which the hon. Member for Middlesex had alluded were intended for the warming and ventilation of the House and of the committee rooms. He might add, that estimates had been given with respect to every portion of the building, and that contracts upon these estimates had been entered into for the supply of the various articles required.

MR. B. OSBORNE

inquired whether the ventilating process to be adopted was Dr. Reid's?

MR. T. GREENE

said, that the apparatus now erecting was for carrying out Mr. Barry's plan, and not Dr. Reid's.

MR. HUME

complained that the new committee rooms were excessively cold, and that in some of them it was very dif- ficult to hear the proceedings. He wished to know whether any measures would be taken to render them more comfortable?

MR. T. GREENE

said, that the attention of the commissioners had been directed to the state of the committee rooms. The boilers to which he referred were intended for the purpose of warming those rooms; and he believed, that in the course of another year the whole of the apparatus would be completed, and the committee rooms would not then he as cold and uncomfortable as they were at present.

Subject dropped.