" Zbe sippettator, Pr fillap 25th, 1850 THE vote of £104,660 for
the expenses of works at the New Palace, for 1850-1, gave Mr. Osborne an opportunity to reventilate the question of the enormous difference between Mr. Barry's estimate (about £700,000) and the probable cost (about £4,000,000) for the Houses of Parliament: a variation which Sir Charles Wood and other Members first mitigated by ex- planatory details, and then showed to be the fault of the House itself, which had insisted on all the variations. Among the "additional " items are £1,500 for a smoking-room, and £3,000 for " cupboards,' &c., for the convenience of Members. Sir Benjamin Hall criticized the ornamental effigies made " in a severe style free from violent action "; whose narrow shoulders Mr. Thomas excuses by the narrowness of Mr. Barry's niches. Mr. Henry Drummond discoursed practically on ventilation ; and many Members praised the ventilation of the House under Dr. Reid's system—from the temperatuge in an empty to that in a crowded state it varies only two or three degrees. Mr. Greene stated, that in the new House, with recent modifications, the sittings for Members are 446 ; in the present House, with the galleries, 456 ; in the old House it was 387. Hereupon Lord Robert Grosvenor recalled the recommendation of the Com- mittee, that there should be sittings for 460, and galleries for all the rest ; a strangers' gallery for 200 ; and distinguished sittings for 100—instead of a space more like the pens in Smithfield than anything else.
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