§ MR. WATKIN WILLIAMSsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether it is true that in the 1529 event of the New Palace of Justice not being erected upon the Thames Embankment site, it is in the power of the Metropolitan Railway Company to build a station in the centre of the land reclaimed from the river; and, whether it is not the intention of the Government to secure to the public the whole of the land so reclaimed between Somerset House and the Temple for the purposes of recreation?
§ MR. LAYARDsaid, in reply, that under the Act of Parliament, the Metropolitan Railway Company were empowered to build, a station in the centre of the land reclaimed from the river; but should the House decide to erect the New Courts of Justice upon the Embankment site the Railway Company had in that case agreed to remove their station to a better position for the public— namely, at the end of Essex Street. The erection of a station in the centre of the reclaimed land would not interfere with that part of the reclaimed land which, under the Act of Parliament, would be set aside for recreation purposes.