I consider also that I am entitled to a further remuneration for special services not connected with my professional duties in respect of the works of the building. These services consist of attendances upon the Fine Arts Commission, reports and numerous drawings prepared in compliance with the orders of that Commission, frequent communications with its secretary, and the artists appointed for the decoration of the interior of the New Palace; attendances upon Committees of Parliament in every session from the year 1841 to the present time, preparing data required by those Committees, giving and correcting of evidence, making up voluminous returns in compliance with orders of the House of Commons (one of which occupied myself and clerks for nearly four months); attendances to give evidence upon two Commissions of Inquiry with reference to Dr. Reid’s system of warming and ventilating, preparing plans and other documents for the use of those Commissions; conferences and communications with the Law Officers of the Crown, with reference to contracts, disputed claims, and threatened legal proceedings; numerous reports and estimates required from time to time by the Office of Woods, negotiations and arrangements consequent upon the establishment of the Government workshops at Thames Bank, and the superintendence of the collection of above 3000 casts of the best specimens of mediæval art to be found in this as well as in foreign countries for the use of the wood-carvers; preparing plans, estimates, &c., for providing accommodation for the whole of the public records of the kingdom, and other miscellaneous services. On account of the whole of the above-mentioned services I have received in the course of ten years the sum of 24,735_l._ 3_s._ 2_d._ in part of the 25,000_l._ originally proposed, or, after deducting my expenses, an income at the rate of about 1,500_l._ per annum, which income, if based upon the principle of a fixed remuneration, would in proportion to the further extent of time occupied in completing the building, suffer a corresponding decrease; and, when it is considered that in consequence of my appointment as the architect of the New Palace at Westminster I have been obliged to give up more than two-thirds of a lucrative practice, and have to my knowledge been deprived of employment to a very considerable extent, from a prevalent feeling which has existed that it was out of my power to attend to any other works; and when also it is borne in mind that this income constitutes the whole of the emolument which I derive, either directly or indirectly, from my appointment, it is scarcely necessary for me to add that such an income does not by any means recompense me for the labours, responsibilities, and sacrifices which I have incurred. The following is an account of the expenditure upon the building, exclusive of the river embankment wall, up to 31st December, 1848:--