§ MR. HINDLEYbegged to ask the Chief Commissioner of Works what course the Government intended to pursue in reference to the report and recommendation of the Committee on the Ventilation and Lighting of the House; and whether Dr. Reid was to be restored to the position he occupied before 1846, and to have the charge of ventilating and lighting the House and its appurtenances, under the supervision of the Chief Commissioner of Works, assisted by a committee of observation, to be appointed annually by the House, in order to report their opinion as to the way in which the management is conducted?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, that in the opinion of the Government, the recommendation of the Select Committee was a very wise and prudent one, and there was every disposition on the part of the Government to carry it into effect. In answer to the second question, which referred to the competent person alluded to in the recommendation of the Select Committee, at present he was not in a position to say who that competent person, in the opinion of the Government, was likely to be. At the same time, he could not sit down without expressing his individual opinion, that the system of ventilation suggested by Dr. Reid had not received that amount of fair play which would enable it to be properly judged of. He did not wish it to be understood that he was now expressing more than an individual opinion; but it would be unjust to Dr. Reid if he sat down without expressing that opinion on his behalf.