§ MR. MITCHELL HENRYasked the honourable Member for Leeds, Whe- 1631 ther the Board of Works will apply the solution, which has proved so efficacious in preserving the stone of Cleopatra's Needle, to the Norman stonework recently uncovered by the demolition of the Law Courts at Westminster Hall?
§ MR. HERBERT GLADSTONEThe solution applied to the stone of Cleopatra'sNeedle—the Indestructible Paint Company's stone solution—has not been tested for a sufficient length of time on that structure to enable a decision to be arrived at as to its efficacy. Moreover, the material of the Needle is of a totally different character from that of the stone work of Westminster Hall. Where the solution in question has been applied to defective pieces of the stone of the Houses of Parliament for test purposes it has not proved satisfactory. So far as can be judged, no solution will be necessary for the preservation of the Norman stone work of Westminster Hall if the proposed cloister building be erected to enclose it.