§ MR. BOWYERsaid, he would beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works, What is the result of the inquiry regarding the cracking of the great bell, and whether the founders are to pay the expense of the new bell; also, whether the new bell is to be warranted sound and durable by Messrs. Mears, the bell-founders?
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALL, in reply, said, 457 he had put himself in communication on this subject with Mr. Beckett Denison, who probably knew more about bells than any man in Europe; and he thought he could not do better than read the reply which Mr. Denison had kindly sent him. It was as follows:—
§ "42, Queen Anne Street, Dec. 9.
§ "My dear Sir,—The cause of the cracking of the great bell was correctly stated in The Times of the 19th of November.
§ "Through some mistake or accident, which the founders say they cannot account for, the waist (or thin part of the bell) was made one-eighth inch thicker than I designed it. The consequence was that it required a clapper of twelve cwt. instead of seven cwt. to bring the full sound out; and although the sound-bow or striking part of the bell bore this clapper for nearly a year, it gave way at last.
§ "If the bell had cracked when it was first tried with this clapper the founders would undoubtedly have had to recast it at their own expense, as they had engaged to make it according to my drawings, and in fact had refused (as you know) to undertake the job unless I would take the responsibility of designing all the bells. But as it seemed to be able to bear this large clapper, even when pulled by ten men, and was generally approved, Mr. Taylor and I did not feel justified in withholding our certificate on account of the deviation from the prescribed thickness, weight, and note; for the quarter-bells were not then made, and could as easily be adapted to the note E natural as to E flat, which I had intended the great bell to be. Moreover, we wore quite satisfied of the soundness of the casting by various tests, and, therefore, Messrs. Warner were paid, and cannot now be fixed with the cost of recasting.
§ "It is right, however, to add that this recasting will not bring the whole cost of the bells above the original estimate, as it included a large margin for contingencies on account of the obvious risk of casting five such bells as these in tune with each other, the smallest of them being as heavy as the largest bell of an ordinary modern peal, and the largest fifteen times as heavy. There is no further risk now, as the quarter-bells are all cast, and only exceed my estimate of eight tons weight by twenty-nine pounds.
§ "The new bell is to be delivered sound by the 19th of February, and is not to be paid for until it has been tried by ringing with a seven cwt. clapper, nor unless it agrees with the prescribed dimensions, composition, and specific gravity. Nothing more can be done to secure its goodness and its durability.
§ "The best bells in the world, such as the old Great Tom of Lincoln, sometimes crack quite capriciously, while very bad ones, such as Great Tom of Oxford, sometimes obstinately last a great deal too long.
§ "The great bell of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Montreal cracked in about a year after it was hung. So in that respect, we are no worse off than other people; and, luckily, our bell was not hung before it cracked.
§ "Yours truly,
§ "E. B. DENISON.
§ "The Eight Hon. Sir B. Hall, Bart., &c."