MR. J. LOWTHERHas the First Commissioner of Works any proposals to make with respect to the serious complaints made of the sanitary condition of the House?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREI regret that I was not in the House yesterday when the right hon. Gentleman put his Question to Mr. Speaker. I had been here for some time previously; but as no intimation, public or private, was given to me by the right hon. Gentleman, or by the noble Lord the Member for Woodstock (Lord Randolph Churchill), that it was their intention to raise this question, I returned to my Office in order to receive the deputation which I referred to earlier this evening. My attention, however, had been called to the complaints as to the smells in the House on Tuesday evening, and I had made inquiries which convinced me that they were due to causes external to the House, and not to defects of ventilation. One proof of this was that the ladies in the Ladies' Gallery of the Lords complained very much, and that when the windows of that House were closed the complaint ceased. I believe also that the same odours were complained of in Palace Yard and Victoria Street, and through a great part of Westminster. 692 It would seem that there was something wrong with the Westminster sewers. I have communicated on the subject with the Metropolitan Board of Works, but have not received any answer as yet. As it appears to be the wish of Mr. Speaker and of other hon. Members that there should be a Committee to investigate the causes of such complaints, I shall make no objection, and I conceive that advantage may result from the inquiries of a small Committee of experts.