MOTION FOR, A PAPER. (Hansard, 15 March 1880)

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON,
in reply, said, he was not prepared to follow the noble Duke into all the details which he had laid before the House; and he thought the noble Duke would have consulted the convenience of their Lordships if he had deferred his speech until the Correspondence was before them. It was not fair to the Department over which he presided to have insinuations made at a time when he could not have an opportunity of replying, as he certainly should reply at the proper time. When that time came, he should be able to defend the action taken by the Department under his direction, as the Museum had been removed in pursuance of the recommendation of the Royal Commission; and he should be much surprised if the judgment formed by the House was not identical with that which he had formed. He need hardly say he had no objection to the production of the Correspondence. The noble Duke spoke of a handsome offer made on this subject, which application, it seemed, had received a curt reply. He should very much like to see the reply.

§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET
said, he had not got the answer. The Papers to which he had referred were printed most of them in the year 1871.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON
said, he had supposed the noble Duke had seen the reply, or he would not have criticized it. He should like to know the terms in which the application was made.

§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET
said, he had not got it.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON
No; because I doubt whether that application ever was made.

§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
said, the Royal Commission was presided over by the Duke of Devonshire, and among its members were Professor Huxley, Professor Henry Smith, Pro- 964 fessor Stokes, Dr. Sharpey, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and Sir John Lubbock. The Commission found that the following Institutions were under the same roof in Jermyn Street:—The School of Mines, the Geological Survey, the Mining Record Office, and the Museum of Practical Geology. The arrangement was unsatisfactory in many ways. There were no adequate laboratories and no sufficient accommodation. Besides this, no Chair of Mathematics was attached to the School of Mines. The number of officers of the Survey had quintupled within the past 20 years, and the accommodation had not been increased. Persons, papers, and collections were all badly lodged. Under these circumstances, the Commission recommended that the Jermyn Street building be given up to the Museum and to the officers of the Survey; the School of Chemistry, which was in a separate building in Oxford Street, and the School of Mines being transferred to South Kensington, where there was ample space and where new buildings were in progress. These Institutions were not, as the noble Duke (the Duke of Somerset) suggested, to be mingled in scientific chaos with the Schools of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. What was proposed by the Commission was that the preliminary courses of mechanical drawing, mathematics, and physical science should be common to both; but the different sections of the School of Science which the Commission desired thus to establish at South Kensington were not to be in any sense confused together. He was anxious to make it clear that the conclusion of the Royal Commission had been arrived at after full deliberation, and not precipitately, or in ignorance of the facts.

§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET
said, he understood there was no objection to the production of the Papers.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON
said, there was no objection to produce whatever Correspondence there was.