[Sidenote: No. A. X. L.
C. E. T.
24783261107.
1,6,4.
1. 1,6,4—
Minute.
A. C. C. S.
2460077221.]
My Lords having taken into consideration the minute of Her Majesty’s
Commissioners appointed specially to enquire into the state and
condition of the district known as Rotten Row, in which statement is
made of the important duties devolving on them, of the necessity for
calm opportunity to consider the subjects committed to their inquiry;
and of the imperfect provision for ventilation, &c., in those
apartments placed at their disposal: are pleased to order that the
Ventilator-General be instructed to inspect and report upon the
condition of the said ventilation, and to propose a plan to be
approved by Her Majesty’s Commissioners, and by them submitted to my
Lords for improving the ingress and egress of air to and from the said
apartments.
“Communicate this minute to the Ventilator-General, and direct him to
prepare estimate.
“Inform Her Majesty’s Commissioners hereof.”
The Treasury minute was acted on, and this was the first day’s work of
the Rotten Row Commission.
The Ventilator-General, who was thus instructed to attend to the wishes
and directions of her Majesty’s Commission, applied the next day and Mr.
Aigulet formed “a Board” for his reception. He took a survey of the
office, and declared that all the architectural arrangements were so
utterly erroneous in principle, as to place it beyond all possible skill
to render the ventilation perfect. He demonstrated most completely that
for the purposes of ventilation the door ought to have been precisely
where the chimney was, and that the chimney should have stood exactly
where the window was. The window itself he proposed to abrogate
altogether, supplying its place either by oil burners, or by a fan-light
opening into a dark passage, neither of which arrangements would
interfere with the process of ventilation. He suggested, in addition, “a
breathing floor,” which he thought it would be easy to obtain even in
the present ill-constructed edifice; and to obviate the smoke, he
proposed to place a hot air apparatus under Mr. Slaney’s desk, whereby,
he said, the necessity of a chimney would be dispensed with altogether.
A new shaft, communicating with an apparatus in the ceiling would, he
said, carry off all the foul gases generated in the room; and if the
height of the shaft outside was such as to injure the general effect of
the building, why, the fault would not be his so much as that of the
architect who had not adapted the edifice so as to anticipate this
necessary erection. Upon the whole, his opinion was that the Rotten Row
Commissioners would do well to postpone their sittings until early in
the ensuing year, in order to enable him, during the interval, to carry
out his designs for reconstructing the building with a view to its
efficient ventilation.
Had this recommendation been made at the close of a Session, and the
commencement of the grouse shooting, it is difficult to say whether the
great and important business of the Rotten Row Commission might not have
stood adjourned for six months, as the Ventilator-General suggested. But
as the Opera season was still at its height, and as Mr. Augustus Aigulet
had before his eyes the fear of an awkward question from some of those
busybodies who occasionally interfere about other people’s business in
the House of Commons, the secretary thought it desirable to recommend
the Board to resolve at present only to adjourn to that day week.
Adjourned accordingly.
This was the Board’s second day’s work.
On the day of re-assembling, the Hon. Mr. Augustus Aigulet found the
following official communication from the chief of the ventilating
department.