Yesterday week Mr. Ayrton threw down the glove once more
to. Mr. Edward Barry and his friends in the House of Commons by a deliberate attack ou him for wasting the public money. He said, in answer to Mr. G. C. Bentinek, that it was not merely the question of what was paid to Mr. Barry, but a question of " the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of pounds which the House was called upon to supply to meet the cost of carrying out his suggestions. There was now no more of these suggestions, and consequently expenditure was less." To this Mr. Barry replies in Tuesday's Times that he never once under any Commissioner took the initiative, and had not even the means of doing so, in any
matter invoking expense ; that his acquaintance with Mr. Ayrton 'has been of the slightest, and that he never had anything to do ander him except to complete some few works commenced before Mr. Ayrtou took office ; that as to the votes for the Houses of !Parliament, they have not been reduced under Mr. Ayrton, except -so far as they were necessarily reduced by the completion of the 'building, which has only just occurred; and that the comparison with last year is specially unfair, as last year's votes were swelled 'by £10,000 for alterations ordered and effected by Mr. Ayrtou himself without the intervention of any architect at all ; finally, that Mr. Ayrton has spent more in one year on " alterations" .alone than has been laid out in ton previous years under that unsatisfactory head.
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