§ LORD ELCHOasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether a Vote of £30,000 on account having been taken at the close of last Session for the erection of a Natural History Museum at South Kensington, according to a design of Mr. Waterhouse, he would, before proceeding with the work, cause this design to be exhibited along side of the three designs by the late Captain Fowke, Professor Kerr, and Mr. C. Broderick, respectively, which were 651 selected, after public competition by the Commission appointed by the Treasury in 1864, to award the prizes for the best designs for a new Natural History Museum; and, whether, as these designs were exhibited to the Public in the Victoria Gallery, while the design of Mr. Waterhouse has not been obtained by any public competition, and has only been seen by a few Members of the House of Commons, where it was exhibited in the Library at the fag end of the Session, he will choose some more public place for the exhibition of the designs?
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, that a Vote of £30,000 on account having been taken at the close of last Session for the erection of a Natural History Museum at South Kensington, according to a design of Mr. Waterhouse, it had become the duty of his right hon. Friend the First Commissioner of Works to proceed in due course to give effect to the intention of Parliament—namely, that the building should be erected. For that purpose specifications had been drawn, and contracts entered into. They had, therefore, got beyond the point when the designs of the late Captain Fowke, Professor Kerr, and Mr. C. Broderick, respectively, might be exhibited alongside of Mr. Waterhouse's before proceeding with the work, as desired by his noble Friend.