VISCOUNT ENFIELDsaid, it would be in the recollection of their Lordships that Her Majesty Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 proposed in the year l860 to let a portion of the ground purchased by them at South Kensington to the Royal Horticultural Society, who were to form the Gardens there; and, by certain agreements between the two Corporations the Society was authorized to borrow £ 50,000 on debentures, and the Commissioners engaged to expend £ 50,000 in forming earthworks and building the arcades. The Society not only spent the whole of the £ 50,000 raised upon their debentures, but also a large sum of money—£ 25,000—received for life-fellowships in building the conservatory and forming the Gardens. The interest on the debenture debt was made payable out of the receipts from the Gardens, as defined by the original agreement, after paying all necessary expenses; and after payment of such interest the balance up to £2,400 was to be paid to the Commissioners as in- 11 terest on their outlay by way of rent. The receipts of the Gardens, in spite of the most rigid economy, had unfortunately not been sufficient of late years to pay the debenture interest; and in March last Her Majesty's Commissioners, alleging a right of re-entry, commenced a suit in Chancery to recover possession of the Gardens without compensation to anyone—the effect of which suit, if successful, would be to destroy the security of the debenture-holders and the rights of life-fellows. He wished, therefore, to ask the Lord President the following Questions:—Whether it was true that Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 had commenced a suit in Chancery against the Royal Horticultural Society in order to recover possession of the Gardens at South Kensington, now in the occupation of the Society whether it was the fact that this proceeding, if carried into effect, would extinguish the liability of Her Majesty's Commissioners to pay the holders of the Horticultural Society's debentures ten shillings in the pound in 1892, provided Her Majesty's Commissioners should, at that date, decline to renew the Society's lease and, whether, if the facts were as stated, Her Majesty's Commissioners proposed to make any compensation to the debenture-holders for the security now held by them, which it was thus proposed to extinguish?
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, the Lord President had requested him to answer the Questions of the noble Viscount, as he was one of the Commissioners of 1851. It was true that such a suit had been commenced. But with regard to the other matters included in the Question, he had to state that the Commissioners never had been, were not, and never could be under any liability to pay the debentures of the Royal Horticultural Society, and that, this being so, they did not propose to make any compensation to the debenture-holders.
§ House adjourned at a quarter before Seven o'clock, till To-morrow, half past Ten o'clock.