§ MR. SHERRIFFsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether any authority has been given for placing in a Committee Room of the House, a model purporting to be that of the works proposed by the Metropolitan District Railway Company in Queen Victoria Street, City, but different from the model produced before the Committee on the Bill for the said works; and, if so, whether before such authority was given, means were taken to ascertain whether the Railway Company admitted the correctness of the said model?
§ MR. AYRTON, in reply, said, the Palace of Westminster, like all other Palaces, was presumed to be in the occupation of Her Majesty, and its use was regulated by the Lord Great Chamberlain. The duty of the Department with which he himself was connected was confined to those works which were necessary in the building, and to furnishing it for the purposes which the Lord Great Chamberlain might design. Ordinarily, with regard to any part of the Palace which was used by either House of Parliament, the high officers of each House gave such directions as were necessary; but when application was made for any special use of the building the requisite authority was granted, not by either House of Parliament, but by the Lord Great Chamberlain. In the present case it was by the officers of the Lord Great Chamberlain's Department that the sanction necessary to enable the model to be exhibited had been given. They did not, of course, inform themselves as to the accuracy of the model; the responsibility on that head resting with the persons who proposed to exhibit it.