§ MR. HENRY SEYMOURsaid, he would beg to ask Mr. Walpole, If he could, on the part of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, lay upon the table of the House any Reports of Mr. Gilbert Scott or other architects upon Salisbury Cathedral, upon which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners made a Grant of £10,000 for the repair of the Cathedral? He also wished to know, Whether the right hon. Gentleman could, on the part of the Commissioners, lay on the table a Return moved for last year by the hon. Member for Surrey, with respect to Grants sanctioned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the purpose of other Cathedrals?
§ MR. WALPOLEreplied, that it was not correct for the hon. Member to say that the Commissioners made a grant, What they did was to sanction a grant, When a commutation of estates took place, then the Chapter laid a statement before the Commissioners, stating the conditions on which the commutation was proposed. The Commissioners then had to consider whether they could take the estate with propriety on those conditions. The document, giving the approbation of the Commissioners for the commutation of the estates of the Salisbury Cathedral Chapter, contained an extract from the Report of Mr. Gilbert Scott, relative to the amount of money required for the repair of the cathedral and spire, and stated that sum to be about £10,000. The Commissioners, in commuting the estates, sanctioned the grant of that sum of £10,000 as part of the conditions on which the estates were to be conferred on them. The Return referred to by the hon. Member was made last year; but, for some reasons unknown to him, the hon. Member for Surrey never moved that it should be printed. It ought to be in the library of the House, and he believed it would give all the information required; if not, he should be ready to concur in any Motion by which that information could be more fully supplied.