§ Order for Committee read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed. "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."
§ MR. BERESFORD HOPEwished to call the attention of the First Commissioner of Works to an advertisement which, to his great surprise he read in The Times of that morning. It announced a sale by auction of the "valuable materials of the colonnade, with Doric stone columns and frieze," of Burlington House. That handsome colonnade of Burlington House, which had been so much talked of in that House, and the gateway, an interesting specimen of the architecture of the last century, were, it appeared, to be knocked down to the highest bidder. This sale would bring a few miserable pounds to the credit of some Government Department; but it would either remove from the metropolis or utterly abolish a monument of archicture which, besides being of historical interest, possessed a considerable amount of architectural beauty. The Government might take power to re-erect this colonnade and portico in one of the public parks or gardens— at Kew, for instance, or South Kensington, or Kensington Gardens. If not the colonnade, they might, at least, put up the archway as an entrance to something. He must protest against the Vandalism which neglected these monuments of the art and history of this country. It was bad enough when such things were done by private individuals; but when the Government allowed such objects to go to the hammer it was time a protest should be made. He trusted that the noble Lord would give the House some assurance that these monuments should not be knocked down to the highest bidder; but that they should be re-erected somewhere, on ground belonging to the country, where they might remain as monuments of architecture of an interesting period in our history.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, he should be very happy to treat privately with his hon. Friend with respect to the sale of this colonnade. He was already in communication with his hon. Friend the 1184 Member for Whitehaven (Mr. C. Bentinck) on the subject, and he should be glad to meet their views as to the re-erection of the colonnade and archway either in Bedgebury Park or elsewhere.
§ MR. DARBY GRIFFITHsaid, he thought that the noble Lord ought to have given a more serious answer. He did not believe the intention of the Government to knock down to the highest bidder the colonnade of Burlington House had been stated in that House.