§ LORD STANMORErose to move that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire and report with respect to the unfinished condition of the rooms in the Palace of Westminster appropriated to the service of this House, and their approaches. The noble Lord said: My Lords, a right rev. Prelate who made his maiden speech in this House a few days ago appealed to the indulgence of your Lordships on the old schoolboy ground that it was a first fault. I am afraid that with regard to this Motion I cannot so appeal, for I have for several years past brought it before you annually. However, perseverance and patience sometimes obtain a reward, and I have reason to believe that on the present occasion my Motion will receive a more favourable consideration from His Majesty's Government than it has hitherto been fortunate enough to obtain. That being the case, I do not think it is necessary for me to detain your Lordships by repeating for the fifth or sixth time the arguments which I have urged in support of the Motion that I have brought forward and am now bringing forward again.
But though I shall not enter into all those details, I wish in a few words to point out what the object of the Motion is and what it is not, because I find that on the part of some of my noble friends in this House there is a misapprehension on that point. The appointment of this Committee does not imply, of necessity, any addition to the decoration of the House. Primarily it has nothing whatever to do with decoration. What it has to do with is the completion of that which is incomplete. With the exception of this apartment and the Library there is 1073 no part of this division of the building that is fully finished, and the object and duty of the Committee if appointed, will be to ascertain first of all what is incomplete, and, secondly' what is the best mode of remedying that incompleteness. It may be by decoration of one kind or another. It may be by a deliberate determination to abstain from decoration; but what I say is a scandal is this, that this unfinished state of things has been allowed to go on for over forty years, ever since the time that the works of the House were suddenly interrupted.
When you have to deal with large blank wall-spaces there are three ways in which you may treat them. They may be dealt with architecturally; that is to say, with masonry, arcading, or panelling. They may be dealt with pictorially, or they may be left in bare and blank nakedness. It would be for the Committee to suggest what was to be done. When this House was first designed the intention was that the blank wall-spaces should be covered with architectural ornament, that its long galleries should be arcaded and panelled. Then that was, under the influence of the Fine Arts Commission, altered, and it was resolved that paintings and mosaics should form the principal adornment of these wall-spaces. Consequently all the walls were turned into gigantic stone picture frames. Some of these have had pictures put into them; most of them are filled with green paper. Familiarity and custom have made us blind to what is perfectly perceptible to any stranger who comes here—namely, the incompleteness of things. I will give you only one illustration. Your Lordships are in the habit of going to and fro from this apartment to the Library. As you go down the passage, you see before you a stone archway. Over that stone archway are Tudor roses and coats-of-arms and mottoes in sculpture and colour; but as you come back from the Library, if you look at the corresponding stone arch on this side, you will see, not similar ornamentation, but a deep and unsightly hole with nothing in it—a hole where the plaster has been removed in order to make space for the filling in of sculpture or mosaic, but which has never been filled in 1074 When the completion of the rooms, passages, corridors, and galleries of the House was interrupted, circumstances were much against the resumption of the work. First of all, there was the death of the late Prince Consort, who had always been the foremost in urging it on; secondly, there was, what was an open secret at the time—and is, I suppose, no secret now—the fact that Her late Majesty the Queen was most averse to having any of her subjects placed in the position which the Prince Consort had occupied, whilst at that time His present Majesty had not shown that marvellous tact and ability in managing Commissions and Boards which he subsequently displayed as Prince of Wales; and, thirdly, there was in office a most economical Chancellor of the Exchequer. All honour to Chancellors of the Exchequer who are economical, but I wish they were not always economical in tiny matters of art. Anyone who knows what trouble there was to get from Mr. Gladstone power to buy a picture for the National Gallery for a book for the British Museum will bear me out in this. It was extremely difficult to get from him money for the decoration of this House. I beg to move the Motion standing in my name, to which I understand His Majesty's Government propose to give a favourable reception.
Moved, "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire and report with respect to the unfinished condition of the rooms in the Palace of Westminster appropriated to the service of this House, and their approaches."—(Lord Stanmore,)
§ EARL SPENCERMy Lords, as I had the honour of supporting the noble Lord's Motion on a former occasion, I rise merely to say with what pleasure I heard from him that His Majesty's Government are likely to meet him in this matter. I do think when we consider what other nations do for art, that it is almost a scandal that in this great Palace of the nation, with so many opportunities, we should not give that encouragement to painting and sculpture which at a comparatively small cost might be given. I do not altogether agree with what my noble friend said as to Mr. Gladstone. I recollect very well 1075 myself being in a Cabinet where he did agree to, I think, £75,000 for one picture, and £20,000 for another.
§ LORD STANMOREI did not say Mr. Gladstone always refused money.
THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (Lord WINDSOR)My Lords, it has been a matter of very great regret to me that on former occasions when the noble Lord has brought this question before the House I have only been able to express sympathy with the object he has had in view. I am glad, therefore, that I am able to say on this occasion that His Majesty's Government do not desire to oppose the inquiry which he asks for. I think it was the noble Earl opposite, the Leader of the Opposition, who last year suggested that the inquiry ought to take the form of a Joint Committee of both Houses, as it deals with the decoration of Westminster Palace, which is a matter that concerns both Houses of Parliament. All that I can say now is that the Government agree to an inquiry, but I must ask the noble Lord to give me time for consideration as to the exact form that inquiry should take.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to; and ordered accordingly.