HC Deb 15 April 1851 vol 116 cc216-7
MR, HUME

said, the noble Lord at the head of the Government would recollect that, in the month after the accession of Her Majesty to the Throne, he had presented a petition, emanating from a great public meeting, held at the Freemasons' Tavern, praying for the adoption of mea- sures by which St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey might be opened to the public free of expense. That petition was probably signed by more artists and men of science and intelligence than any ever presented. The result was that within a week Her Majesty gave instructions to the noble Lord to use every means in his power to carry out the prayer of the petition. The noble Lord accordingly addressed letters to the Deans and Chapters of St. Paul's, Westminster, and several other cathedrals in the country, stating Her Majesty's wish. It was only quite recently that this object had been partially attained. Westminster Abbey had been opened to the public by Dr. Buckland, the dean; and on the 1st of May next he understood St. Paul's was to be opened free of charge. Seeing that we were about to be visited by a number of intelligent strangers, that all the cathedrals on the Continent were open free of charge, and that these places were always visited by strangers, it was most desirable that measures should be renewed by the Government for obtaining free access to all the cathedrals in the country. It ought to be stated, in justice to the capitular bodies of Norwich, Wells, and York, that those cathedrals were already open free of charge; and in those cases the very best results had been effected. There was no better means of improving the moral character of the people than by giving them free access to those fabrics; it was, in fact, a kind of education, exclusive of the reverential awe with which these venerable structures must impress every one that entered them. He would take that opportunity of expressing to the noble Lord his thanks for the efforts which he made at the time.

COLONEL RAWDON

said, that Hampton Court was now open on Sundays; he would throw it out for the consideration of the Government whether or not the National Gallery and Kew Gardens might not also be advantageously thrown open on that day.