The Express.
London, England, 1863-11-11 00:00:00

THE IMPERIAL SPEECH.

whiLrohndifonproenptriylsy
uantiliaareldvanmitagget
bopecoldliare
atogoiotslf,
genuine
and valuable means of health and recreation to the I
three millions of inhabitants recorded in the last
census returns as being included within the bills of
mortality. We refer to the various large tracts of
common land which surround it on every skis, and I
which in consequenorof the rapid constrnsiism of
short lines of railway from the City and Weet-emd
are becoming more accessible every day, but which,
as they are alip growing more valuable for the
same reason, are threatened with universal enclo- •
sure, unless some means be taken to preserve them
from the encroachments of building speculators,
connived at by lords of the manor, who I
are every day tempted by large pecuniary ffers to
give up their own slender rights, forgetful that at
the same time they are destroying the rights of the
common people, to whom these commons, after all,
really belong, and for whose benefit they might be
made so many noble free parka and play-grounds.
The persevering attempts of the lord of the
manor to plate buildings on Hampstead-heath are
familiar to everyone who looks over the parlia-
mentary debates. Year after year bills are brought
in under one preheat* or another, and it requires
the utmost vigilance on the part of the inba-
hinuati of the, vicinity and Of the isistropo•
litan members to prevent the enclosure Of
one of the • most °harming bits of wild land
that ever ccnamented the outskirts of a meat
city. We can also remember the disclosures of
lest aession respecting Hainault Forest, and the
very bad figure which the crown WI the
guardian of the public rights, cut in that tmnsao-
tion • but lit is the same thing everywhere.
"What's everybody's business is nobody's business."
The short railways are opening up the commons
to Londoners day by day, and no sooner does the
little station amp up amid the wild heather than
down COMO the building epeculators, matters are
"made pheasant" with the lord of the manor, and
the common rights of the millions of the two metro-
politan'counties are remorselessly destroyed.
The commons begin very close to London. The
first is Kennington, which up to no very recent
Period was wild enough. In the week days it was
crowded with cricketers of all ages,. and on Sundays
with controversishnta of every-religions denotaiaa-
tion. At night it was Paid to be the
resort of bad eharacters—meaning, of course,
persons who were without the means of paying, for
a night's lodging ; and the old people of the neigh-
bourhood could point to the earner close to the
church, which within living memory bad witnessed
the execution of many noted highwaymen and
footpads. 'ln fact, great pains were taken to give
Kennitigton-common a bad name, with the ulterior
view of improving its morality by covering it with
houses, for the advantage of speculative and en-
croselsmg individuals. The bricks and mortar at
last actually did appear on the ground, and • large
corner was dexterously covered with houses before
anyone had time to interfere, when • public-spirited
of the neighbourhood took the matter in
band, and so bestirred the. Woods and Forest* for
powers and. the local public for means, that Ken-
nington-common was rescued from the spoiler, and
has now boom. Kennington-park, one of the
prettiest things of its extent about London,
being thus preserved for ever as a pleasant prome-
nade and Sam of re:ovation for the inhabitants of
the vicinity. Sack • result is • striking proof of
what may lbe done even by one publio.spirited indi-
vidual. If there were a Mr. Hodgson keeping a
baker's shop in the vicinity of each of our great
metropolitan commons, we should not perhaps hare
so heavily to complain of the neglect of the people's
legal protectors, the cupidity of lords of the manor,
or the encroachments of building speculators.
In a time of great excitement on sanitary ques-
tions and under great public preimure govern-
ment rescued Battersea fields from the plague of
bricks and mortar, and turned it into • park, which
is improving in appearance every day, and is daily
more and more appreciated by the public. It is
in the hope of stimulating these exertions a little
further in the same direction that we now take
leave to call their attention to the condition of
certain other commons in the neighbourhood of
Loudon.
Close to Battersea-park lies Wandsworth-
common, one of the most beautiful, healthful, and
romantic of all our suburban wild lands ; but
Waudsworth-common is rapidly becoming the prey
of the spoiler. It stretches from the high road to
between London and Wandsworth on the one aide,
down to Tooting and Wimbledon on the other,
with a noble breadth of heath-covered land all the
way, over which a healthful breeze continually
plays. Wandsworth-common is now within •
few minutes' distance of London-bridge, of the
Waterloo-road, and the Victoria stations, in fact of
the most thickly peopled centres of London
population. It would, if drained and levelled,
make • splendid recreation ground for the
toiling millions, and also, what we want most sadly,
a noble Crump de Mare for our volunteer army.
The Clapham Junction station, which is situated at
about • quarter of a mile distance from the com-
mon, is passed by the almost incredible number of
550 trains per diem, the Brighton line has a station
close upon its verge, and the South Western. Com-
pany has secured twelve acres of land within the
common itself. By these means, fifty or a hundred
thousand men could at any time be brought to the
ground with the greatest facility, as well as ten
times that uumber of spectators, who would be
only too proud to see their volunteer army of de-
fence thus turn out some half-dozen times in sum-
mer within stone's throw of the great city. But
Wandsworth-common is in imunneut peril. The
enclosure demon has been nibbling at it during
these last twenty years, and it was only
a few days since that the copyholders
laid their grievances at the feet of Earl
Spencer, the lord of the manor. We are happy to
add that the result was so far satisfactory that his
lordship promised that nu further encroachment
should take place during his lifetime ; but then a
matter iu which the public has so deep an interest
should not be left dependent on the will of any
in-
dividual, however iuduential, whose power to carry
out his good intentious ends with his life.
The manorial rights over Wandsworth-common
were vested some century or so ago in no lees • par-
sonage than the famous Lord Bolingbroke; and
there is a tradition in the neighbourhood of their
having been won from St. John by the Lord Spencer
of the period whilst the two were riding *crop
-
On Friday last the Rev. Francis Burges Good- Clapham-common into town, in the highly exciting
sore, N.D., was instituted to the coosolidated rectories of game of pulling halfpence out of a haystack. How-
trilby and Herglisen, in the county of Norfolk, on the pre- ever that may have been, the commou remained in-
timates) of John Goodacre, of Rugby. In the county a tact in all its primitive wildness under the Spencer
Warwick, a minor. On the same day, the Bev. Charles rile until about a quarter of a century since, when
Short*. 8.A., was collated by the Lad Bishop of Nor- the work of enclosure, without any parliamentary
with to the honorary canonry is the Cathedral Church of •
Norwich. Tweet hy the death of the Rot,, niece, Causing- iormannes, began. First twenty ache were taken fur
ham, and was installed the following day. , St. James's School. Then certain pergola leased
116•Lrii or LONDON.--It appears from the I a large portion, with powers merely to cut turf and
weakly rehire et the Registrar-General that the deaths in cart ravel, and undertaking to apply their profits
London inasenem the colder sesame deem cm, bet hitherto to the drainage and other improveumuts of the
the rate of increase has been alight. They were 1,270 in the land in their immediate neighbourhood. They
week that ended on Saturday. The
made large profits, but forgot the improvements,
deaths in tee earapooding weeks (via, athreenleesthaiunwetrh ofa
the years 1853-421 is, with a oorrectecie for Mamw of and one of their body secured and inclosed about
population, 1,270. Berme it spawn that them:steal mortality forty acres ou his own account, which, on his
in the week was exactly the same as the result which is ob- death, very recently, were sold by auction. The
mined by calculation. There were 23 deaths from small- South Western Itailwey Company have secured
pox. Four of these occurred in the subdistrict of Whiteman-
twelve •acres in the very centre of the common and
street, while there were only two in the whole of that region
of the metropolis shish limos the south aide of the Thames. enclosed it, having given the copyholders 801. for
Scarlatina was resorted is 125 OWL Seventeen of these their right of " tetberage," and of course satisfied
occurred in Marylehom. 11 is Palmas, sin Limehoum. 6 the claims of the lord of the manor. The London,
is Bow. Four children of a bouse.paister died at 26, 1301. . Brighton, and South Coast Company Lave a sta-
soverstreet. Berrlebries, as the 4th, Mla sad 7th inst., of
tutu just as its edge, and four acres of surrounding
midair. Farr deaths f the same disease ocaured at
13, Northampton-row, Clerkenwell, within 9 day.. Typhus land, and their line runs right through to
exhibits an imaged mortality. In the last three weeks Wimbledon. This encroachment would seem
the death, few it es as average were 61 ; in lb* previous to have been a must beneficial one, for
three weeks they were 52. last week the births of 1,011 it enables
boys and 965 girls, in all I.9(ti children, were registered is . people
omen in a few minute,
Imam Ia the noseneordiug weeks of the years Ict°llll elution to the IP°
to get from London-bridge or
18.13-la the avengber (corrected) was 1,879. and has wonderfully stimulated building specula-

We give the following extracts from Berlin and
other journals in reference to the speech of the
Emperor Napoleon : _ _

The semi-official North German Gaulle of Berlin after
citing textually the part referring to the abolition of
the treaties of 1815, adds "We menthe with a
certain eatiefeetioi that the Emperor, is &Airing
that Geneney is losisavearlsig to revise the treaties
of 1818, dm only have had in view the Nationelmein or
the Austrian project of reform, for Prude has ever Amend
her wood mice given, and the trestle, which formed the
bash of the future granules of Germany. To three words
the Emperor attaches the idea of replacing 11111 treatise by a
sort of European areepagns, an idea which appears
to have a striking reeemblaoris to that of the
Holy Alliance, with the sole diaereses that Pram
would preside at the tribunaL It cannot be dmimulated
that the supreme arbitrage proposed by the Emperor is
founded upon a serious moral idea, but circumstances are
more powerful than men. What is characteristic es the
vary same point is, that the imperial idea appears in out's-
dietice with another pun ge of the speedo, which says—
' An offence to oar homer or • menace against oar fron-
tiers alone imposes on us the duty of acting without •
preliminary aoacere' This pomp is evidestly imam
tileable with the idea of • tribunal ts whites* nelson the
Bmperer of the Fusel has the IMAM., is order to realise
.ffiffietilierof swhulebir limelf r thee leiboanal ones *
an came or amass to hams, foe which he claims the
entirely Wm:ended adios of that country. If that is
the inteanioe, without say mental reseroutim of the
sovereign of Fumes, the ides of emetitratioe damns in-
deed to be geoseally apioroved of."
The ffieurre of Me Onws SIM to the speech the eventuality
of war, and consider, that the predict Emperor would ect
hen put forward such as alternative if he bad not **Mud,
made sore of certain alliances. The Heliostat &mate we.
Wars the speech *cies. The People's Gazette is of opinion
that an aims bee boas made between France end Auk*
and that It was om the stun* of that aim* the Ensurer
made his remarkable speech.
The Czas of the 4th mentions the immense effect
which bee been produced in Poland by the speech of the
Emperor of the French. Napoleon ILL, in inviting the
powers.* • congress in the name of justice and esooordiation,
forms the governments to follow his generous initiative or
to avow selfish views. It will be the glory of the age if the
idea pat forth in the imperial mesa were followed up ex-
tensively and freckly by the someiges of Europe, but en-
fortunately the experience of the rest causes doubts to be
entertained as to the efficacy and the success of the under-
taking. As far u regards Poland there is now reason to
affirm that our destinies do not so much depend on Europe
u that the liberal destinies sad the civilisation of Europe
depend on the solution of the Polish question. Poland
under any circumstances will fulfil her IlliNiol to the sad.
The Dziennik, the Russian official jowled in Warm, has
published the Emperor's speech.
The Neoax of Madrid, after stating that it believes war
to be adjourned for the present, adds But war is col,
adjourned, and will infallibly break out is 1864 if the
wisdom of governments, the efforts of Erases and of Ass-
iris especially, and the personal sestimesta of the Impugn
Alexaader, rising sopenor to the pintoes of his people, do
sot bit upon • solution which will at case reconcile the
dignity ot Russia and the honour of Europe, and, by um
notating the unfortunate cooditiou of Poland, satisfy the
demands of humanity and cirdiaation. We see ell the
difficulties to the seserabling of • owe* But Fame
wants it in order to avoid a war, which is otherwise it
(reliable ; and, in this sense we ardently desire that her
civilisiag efforts may be offer :teeny suppooted by Spain and
the other European powers."
The Italie& Jaernals mama the position of Poland
is 1858 with that 44 Italy in 1850, and remark that the pro-
lent of a «agrees preceded the Italian war. The
Opinions pressies the adhesion of Italy to the proposal
for • ecegreas, bet dud& It me amemble " Italy will be
reedy when the Meestir of armies shell be called on to eat
the knot whirl in this sope of eiviliaation {reanimate have
riot known how to untie by reason and right." The
Paged° says Napoleon 111. has boldly issued a summons
to Europe. Let Europe choose Mum dace and the over-
throw of the put by the reseeetreetios of ohs future.

THE LOSS Or TEE SEBASTIAN CABOT.

The official report to the Lords of the Committee
of Privy Council for Trade, on the alleged abandonment of
theship Sebastian Cabot, and the conduct of the master in
reference thereto, hoe been published. After fully statiog
the facts, which have already been reported in oar columes,
Mr. Baffles, before whom the inquiry took place, concludes
as follows :—" I consider the master in default in this cue
on two group& First, lam of opinion that be committed
• grave error of judgment when, in spite of the
opinion of his fiat Wirer and carpenter, be changed his
intention of taking his ship into • port of safety, and Mood
out to sea, as the wind being favourable, and such a haven
being near at hand, he might readily have reached it. And
secondly—and this is the emus gonad of default—l am of
opinion that be acted in a hasty. unwarrantable, and num.
manlike manner in abandocing his ship with her valuable
there being no real necessity for so doing, sad se-
Wally before be had ascertained, by communication with
an approaching vessel, that the soutane he required
would be rendered to him. The water in the bold at the
time be left the ship did not exceed four feet. He had
not sounded his well for an hour and a half previond.r.
nor had be ascertained the cause of the leak, which
wee gebsequently stopped the day after he returned to
her. The conduct of the master seems inamountable
throughout, and Ism not surprised to learn that it was idleged
'to hushing owlet to a murk of sobriety ea hie part. After
careful inquiry, however, as to this allegation, I cannot
fled say evideooe to justify it, and lam bound, therefor
to acquit him on this score. It is . true that the muter
subsequently returned to the ship. To whatever influence
this was owing, it may have been in cresequence of the
mailer of the Archipelago expressing his intention to take
poseessioa of the Siatian Cabot, or, as 1 would fain hope
was the case, it may have been owing to • better feeling
impelling the master to return to the duties be had
abandoned, I can make no difference in so far u my
duty is mourned. I am clearly of *pickle, taking
ell the circurnstaocee into consideration, that whoa the
master ordered oui his longboat, and told she men to
put their effects into her, and actually took with them their
rumbling live stock, the ship's chronometer, • sextitut, and
Marta, that the grave default was committed for which I
am bound to pain sentence nixie him. Had the serious
'Rustier' of hisobruity been proved against the master I
should have felt myself bound to cancel altogether his cer-
tificate. But as it is Ido not consider that the justice of
the case would be met without an exemplary sentence, and
I have acoordiegly, with the full concurrence of my
saneencee, suspended the certificate of Mr. Joseph Hopkin
son for 18 calendar months from this date."