§ MR. OLIVEIRAsaid, he would beg to inquire what steps had been taken in reference to the application of £40,000 voted by clause 26 of the Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Act, 1855, 18 & 19 Vict., for the erection of a new Foreign Office; and the sum of £5,800, voted by the same Act, for the continuation of Pall Mall into the Green Park?
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLsaid, that the sum of £40,000 voted, last year was for two purposes; a sum of £10,000 was intended for the purpose of repairing the Foreign Office, and the remaining sum of £30,000 was for the acquisition of property in the neighbourhood of the offices in Downing Street. He had not thought it advisable that the £10,000 should be laid out at the present time, because a Select Committee was appointed to consider what buildings should be erected in that neighbourhood. With respect to the £30,000 voted for the acquisition of property, he could state that a great deal of the property had been already purchased. The sum of £5,800, referred to by the hon. Member, was to be paid for some property belonging to Lord Ellesmere, being the only property between St. James's Street and the Green Park not in the possession of the Crown. The purchase was not yet completed, but the hon. Gentleman, was mistaken in supposing that that sum would be sufficient to open a line from Pall Mall to the Green Park. The cost of such a line would approach to something more like £100,000, and the Committee, so far from agreeing to that proposition, rejected it.