§ MR. JAMES (Gateshead)I beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works in whom the property of the furniture, the pews, pulpit, reading desk, organ, &c., of the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, is legally vested; whether they belong to the Crown or to the Government; whether, in the event of the former, and the Chapel being closed, they become, or are likely to become, the perquisites of the Bishop of London, the United Service Institution, the Lord Chamberlain, or any other official; and whether any item of account connected with the 1277 Chapel has ever appeared in the Estimates?
§ THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (Mr. PLUNKET, Dublin University)All the fittings and furniture of the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, are the property of the Government, and are not and will not become the perquisites of any person. The organ is to be transferred to the Chapel at the Tower, and the other ecclesiastical fittings will, as far as possible, be made use of in other Royal chapels. In 1835 Parliament voted £7,665 for fitting up the Chapel, and the cost of its maintenance has constantly appeared in the Estimates as an item in the Vote for Public Buildings, sub-head B. I may as well add that it is a condition of the grant of the old Banqueting Hall to the Royal United Service Institution that, in the alterations which may be necessary for preparing the building for their purposes, there shall be no material interference with the architecture of the structure, either in the exterior or the interior, and that the fine ceiling with paintings by Rubens shall be specially and carefully maintained, and it will be the business of the Office of Works to see that this condition is faithfully observed.
§ MR. MUNDELLA (Sheffield, Brightside)May I ask who is to have the care of the valuable painted ceiling by Rubens?
§ MR. PLUNKETThe Institution.