The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

thousand years, be one of the great ruling
powers of the world, but there is every reason
to suppose that she will be so, should she
discard from her policy that narrow notion
which led so rapidly to the dissolution of the
great empires of the ancient world—that the
progress of rival Stattie afford ground fOr
suspicion and chullows hostility
THE NEW NATIONAL GAIIWIES.
THE opinion of Continental politicians that in
England we pay dearly for our liberty is some-
times brought home to our conviction in a
more unpleasant manner than we could wish.
Our High Court of Parliament, like our High
Court of Chancery, seems able to come to no
decision which is not open to endless ap-
peals, and the result is, that matters of busi-
neai with which the Legislature is privileged
to interfere makes very slow progress indeed.
It has been a general impression on the part
of the public that her Majesty's Exhibition
Commissioners having secured at vast ex-
perm a clear site of nearly one hundred acres
suitable for the erection of a range of splendid
palaces devoted to science and art, and Par-
liament having sanctioned the general design
between three and four years ago, mea-
sures would be promptly taken to prose-
cute the magnificent enterprise that the
cost and labour might not be lost to
the present generation. Only on the sup-
position that Parliament would earnestly
carry forward the great work, could the large
expenditure of the Commissioners he justi-
fied. The site has been prepared for opera-
tions—noble roads have been formed—and
architects and builders, so far sz regards the
ground, might commence their labours at
once. While the public are impatiently expect-
ing a commencement to be made, an agitation
is got up, no one knows how, against all that
has been done ; and Lord ELCHO, as its offi-
cial mouthpiece comes forward to propose that
the labours of years shall pass for nothing ;
that an outlay of three hundred and fifty
thousand 1 ounds shall be thrown away;
that a commission embracing the names of
upwards of thirty noblemen and gentlemen,
with the Prince Concort at their head, emi-
nently distinguished for social station, official
rank, patronage of science and art, and most
illustrious achievement in various branches
of intellectual pursuit. shall virtually be set
aside, and that we shall begin de novo from the
year 1850, before any Exhibition Commission
was issued. Was ever such a monstrous pro-
position submitted to the sense of the House
of Commons before ? It appears like a bur-
lesque of legislative privilege.
In the first place, what can be said against the
site itself? We cannot attribute much impor-
tance to the argument drawn flora its compara-
tive remoteness. We believe that people who
care to see pictures would go to Gore-
house as readily as to Trafalgar - square.
Few people make a lounge of the National
Gallery, and very few go there to whom
time is of such pressing importance that they
could not go a mile or two farther. Moreover,
it being generally agreed upon that any new
picture gallery must be built out of reach of
the dense atmosphere of the heart of the
mietropolis, it practically becomes a question,
not between Kensington and Charing cross,
hut Kensington and some other suburb ; and
there is certainly no other equally accessible
In regard to the atmosphere, the proposed
site with its frontage to extensive gardens is,
at present all that can lbs desired ; but it
is urged by the opponents of the Commis-
sion that a large suburb is sure to spring
up in the neighbourhood, which will destroy
these advantages, and that it would there-
fore be better to take possession of Ken-
sington Palace at once, and make such
.additions to that as the design in contem-
plation may require. But, without going
into the question of how far it would