The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-11 00:00:00

REJTAN!IA.

TRIs Firainis. LADY 711.;6111Y3 SECRET. THZ HRZAT
ounsr EFFECT. MeMilaWlll Yarecold sad Craaford.—lAr.
Parker. Madame Herne. and Mr. W. landalL —And MK ADVIN-
TURHS UK A TICKET Oi LZAVIE.

111011 WATAk AT lAINDON PILIDGIC
TAO DIT —lloroluy 0 .Atioraoas. lb. 15m
To-isoliaoii —Morning. Ili Ws. . A/torso's. Ih.

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11.

THE establishment of People's Parks in our
large manufacturing and commercial towns is a
felicity quite peculiar to our own day, a strictly
modern fact,, and it is at the same time one
of the most gratifying signs of our social
and political progress as a nation. Until quite a
recent period, excepting in the single instance of
the Metropolis, Parks belonged only to the privi-
leged claimeabeing wholly identified with the royal
or noble owners for whose use and pleasure they
were in the main sacredly reserved. Close to,
many of the large towns were magnificent parks
and pleasure-grounds, within whose dividing pale,
from year's end to year's end, only a single house-
hold or a select circle ever entered, while
the pent-up dwellers in those towns had
no means whatever of open-air recreation I
except at too great a distance for any but':
vagabonds habitually to enjoy. The rapid deve-
lopment of our manufacturing, mining, and
commercial industry has no doubt tended, as
Lord Russem. points out, to increase these evils.
The rapid multiplication of mills and workshops
will soon, even in the most rural districta,
absorb the village green, turn the way-side stream I
into inky slush, and cover the adjacent fields
with • msas of densely-populated, squalid tene-
ments. In • few years almost the 'only avail-'
able recreation for a working man in such a dis-
trict after his day's toil is a pipe on the door-
step, • wrangle with his wife, or a pot with his
companions at the beershop at the corner. But
this serious. incidental evil of our pros-
perous industry is being rapidly corrected.
In our day the vanished village green is restored
on • scale answering to the enlarged requirements
of a manufacturing town over those of a country
town or a rural hamlet. Within the last few years
many of our large towns, such as Salford and
Halifax, have been supplied with magnificent
People's Parks, and the boon has in most eases
been the result of local munificence, the parks
having been given in whole or part by merchants
and manufacturers. Those whose capital has
_ _

to listen to their grievances. " Let not the Re-
" formers say—When we ask for redress
" all innovation ; when the Crown asks pi=
" tion you unction a new code. tar 'Rare
" not willing to go an inch—for Mkisters you go
" a mile. When we ask for our rights, you ought
" not to touch thelittlefinger of the Constitution—

" butil* those in autboritydemand,inore power,
" you plunge your knife into its heart." When
Lord RCBBiLL used this bold and patriotic hui-
guage, all the world of fashion, influence, and
power were against him, but he steadily fought
the battle of popular rights, giving the best
years of his life to the struggle, and eventually
he triumphed. And amidst such welcome and
striking illustrations of the beneficent effects of the
victory, a reference to the cause is not only pardon-
able, but in a high degree encouraging and
instructive.

most largely profited by the modern concentration
of labour have thus been amongst the first to
recognise the claims of the industrial classes, by
making permanent provision on • generous scale
for their comfort, recreation, and enjoyment.
Through the munificence of Sir DAVID BAXTIL,
Dundee is now added to the DUNl-
ber of towns thus favoured. The beautiful
Park which this publio-epirited merchant has pre-
sented to his fellow-townsmen was opened on
Tuesday, Lord Russau gracing the occasion with
his presence, and appropriately summing up the
feeling which such an act naturally inspires :
" Happy is he who can give to those 'in pope-
" 'lons city pent' • rest from exhausting toil
" amid scenes which invigorate the body, and
" turn the mind to the contemplation of the won-
" derful works of GOD."

The political allusions of Lord Rcesaix's ad-
dress, if deficient in the charm of novelty,
were nevertheless peculiarly fitted to such an
occsaion. We have no doubt heard before of the
noble lord's share in the repeal of the Corporation
and Test Acta, as well as in the great Municipal
and Parliamentary Reform. But for this very
reason, because a reference to these measures is
so familiar and commonplace, we are too much
disposed to overlook the great social and political
revolution they represent, and while enjoying the
beneficent results of this revolution it is well that
we should be reminded now and then of the
struggles through which it was achieved, and
learn to connect our superior advantages with
. _ _

their trite cause. There a a far closer oonnimion
between the Parliamentary Reform of tidily years
since and the People's Parks of today than care-
less observers might be disposed perhaps to

imagine. It was substantially the battle of
popular rights and political justice against the
combined forces of class, privilege, and accumu-
lated wrongs ; and its success gained for the
people the position out of which People's
Parks, popular education, and numberless other
schemes of industrial elevation and social
reform arose. That great instalment of pub-
lic justice, with the measures in favour of poli-
tical and religions liberty it produced, did much
to remove the bitter alienation that had grown up
between the governing classes and the people,
est►blished an understanding between them, and
laid for the first time a solid basis of future
action for the common good. It is enough
to glance at the history of this country
during the years which preceded the passing
of the Reform Bill to be convinced of this.
We can hardly now even conceive of the terrible
social and political condition of England during
the fifteen years that intervened between the peace
and the era of successful reform. The Government
of the day was not only destitute of popular sym-
pathy and support, but waged an active and de-
termined warfare against the people. It was the
era of the Hampden Clubs, the march of the
Blanketeers, the so-called Derby insurrection,
and the political trials for alleged blas-
phemy and sedition. At the time when
Lord Rusastt first entered public life the govern-
ment of the day demanded and obtained from •
subservient Parliament a suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act, on the plea that the existents of
clubs and societies in favour of Parliamentary
Reform was a public danger, demanding this
extreme measure. Then, as now, Lord Run=
was the champion of public justice and popular
rights, against the encroachment of arbitrary
power and the selfish violence of • privileged
class. One of his first speeches, it will be remain-

bored, was against this unconstitutional measure,
and referring to the much more serious dangers of
the country when the Act was passed, he said,
" We talk much—l think a great deal too much,
" of the wisdom of onr ancestors. I wish we
" would Imitate the courage of our ancestors.
" They were not ready to lay down their liberees
" at the foot of the Crown upon every
3. " In the same
the House against
people by refusing

LATE • iNTELLIG
il▪ ifS TIT I
PItCTION THE ltN-C DB
• U
T•
he following the list of ithe navatecoli+
appointed to assist M. do Chapreloup Lau the
Minister of Marine, in his inspection of the iron-clad
vessels at .Cherbourg :—Vice-Admiral Penland,
President of the Council of Marine Works, and
Member of the Committee of Coast Defences ;
M. Duprey de Lome, Director of Naval Construc-
tions, and Director of Mathrie/ in the Ministry of
Marine and Colonies ; Rear-Admiral Liberian*,
Member of the Couneil of Marine Works ; M.
Pironneau, Director of Naval Constructions, and
Assistant-Inspector-General ; M. Chevalier, cap-
tain of a line ship ; M. Bourgeois, captain of a
line ship, and sassistant-councillor of the Ad-
miralty ; M. de Robert, marine engineer of the
neat-class attached to the port of Cherbourg. The
trials of the iron ships will begin on the 10th or
12th of this month, and it is said that they will last
40 or 50 days.

THE EMUS, FRIDAY EVENING, " SEPTEMBER 11, 'lliektimort

ITALY.

Sim 41.
411te evening papas announce that the King 1411
reviow 51 batteries of artillery on the 20th inst,
oaths plain of StioNA after the other reviews law*
taken plaoe at Milan.

THA 71Y/eLE3J

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TURIN.

"vain or imaginary alarm.
speech he aarnestly warned th
losing the respect of the pe(
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