§ SIR JOHN SHELLEYsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works whether the Government have determined upon the erection of a new Foreign Office, and, if so, who is to be employed as the architect; also, whether the materials recently deposited in the vacant space, near Downing Street, are intended for the erection of any public building?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSreplied, that all he had to say, in answer to the first question of the hon. Baronet, was, that Her Majesty's Government had not yet resolved on erecting a new Foreign Office, and that, consequently, no site had been selected by them for such a building. With respect to the last question of the hon. Baronet, he had to state that the materials at present in Downing Street did not belong to Her Majesty's Government, but to a body of which the hon. Baronet himself, he (Lord J. Manners) believed, was a most distinguished member, namely, the Metropolitan Board of Works, who had, as he understood, collected these materials for the purpose of building an office for themselves in Victoria Street.