oice to a limited range of hearers some
weak arguments in favour of Gothic; Mr Osborne seemed to be against
everything that anybody had ever proposed, and wanted to put off the
building till some plan better suited to his own taste should have
been invented. Viscount Palmerston answered the objections made to the
Italian plan, and Lord Elcho's Motion was negatived by 188 to 75. The
House then went into Committee of Supply, and the first estimate being
that for the Foreign Office, some of the Gothic party who had not been
able to deliver their speeches on Lord Elcho's Motion, let them off on
this estimate....

[Footnote 20: Now Earl of Wemyss.]

[Footnote 21: Mr William Cowper, at this time First
Commissioner of Works.]

[Footnote 22: Mr (afterwards Sir) William Tite, was now Member
for Bath; he had been the architect entrusted with the task of
rebuilding the Royal Exchange.]

[Footnote 23: Mr Gilbert Scott had made his first designs for
the new Foreign Office in the Gothic style; his appointment as
architect for the building was made by the Derby Government,
but the scheme which they favoured, for a Gothic building,
was opposed by Lord Palmerston, and Scott adopted the Italian
style in deference to his views.]

_Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston._

OSBORNE, _24th July 1861_.

The Queen is sorry that she cannot alter her determination about Mr
Layard.[24] She fully recognises the importance of the Parliamentary
exigencies; but the Queen cannot sacrifice to them the higher
interests of the country. Neither Mr Layard nor Mr Osborne ought to
be proposed as representatives of the Foreign Office in the House
of Commons, and therefore of the Crown to foreign countries. If Lord
Palmerston can bring Mr Layard into office in some other place, to get
his assistance in the House of Commons, she will not object.

[Footnote 24: In the course of July, Lord John Russell, who
had entered Parliament for the first time in 1813, was raised
to the Peerage as Earl Russell and Viscount Amberley. To
supply the loss to the Government of two such powerful
debaters as Lord Russell and Lord Herbert, Lord Palmerston had
suggested Mr Layard as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
mentioning also the claims of Mr Bernal Osborne.]

[Pageheading: MR LAYARD]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

94 PICCADILLY, _24th July 1861_.

Viscount P