The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-26 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR UT THE DAILY NEWS.

SI lt,—Some time back, when the Palace Court had
been doomed by the potent voice of the English
public, a heated discussion arose as to the compensa-
tion due to those barristers who had practised there.
The court was en evil, and the barristers, as part of
the court, were evils—selling justice, or something
like it, at a very dear rate. By general consent the
nuisance was stifled; but the barristers and their
lofficials, in the regular course of things when in-
fluential men are dealt with, received compensation
for the loss of their monopoly. Not a few sagacious
people grumbled to see a set of fat dealers in tor-
tuous law pelted out of their court with sovereigns;
but custom sanctioned the bargain, and it
was settled accordingly. In this fashion,
' then, government deals with the rubbish it has
to clear away in the progress of its reforms.
A set of men, having been declared impedi-
ments in the way of cheap justice, have
handsome salaries given to them to retire from
their obnoxious practices. Here government deals
with the bar—deals daintily and handsomely, but
presently a poor woman comes unhappily in contact
with the entire machinery of the Woods and Forests.
here is the instructive story that ensues:
About a century ago George 11. was immersed in
the Serpentine (not a fragrant bath), and was extri-
cated, with other help, by the grandfather of one Ann
Hicks. The royal life was saved,and H icks,as the price of
his courage, received the permission to have ust nd, for
the sale of refreshments, in Ik-de-pork. The reward
was not princely, but the second George was assuredly
at liberty to set his own value upon his mortal
career. He fixed the value at an apple-stall, and
Hicks enjoyed the royal award for a period of 69
years, when he was gathered to his fathers, and his
son began his career behind the stall. Here for
49 years the son carried on the father's trade,
and then followed his father, leaving a daugh-
ter, who had helped ut the stand from her
fifth year, in possession of the little property. Seven
years ago Lord Lincoln gave Ann Hicks lierinission
to build a stone lodge at the edge of the Serpentine.
This lodge cost the woman 1301., the entire savings
of her life. Presently it occurred to Lord Seymour,
the successor of Lord Lincoln, that the lodge must
be removed ; and accordingly the poor woman was
served with notice to quit, and an intimation that if
she complied at once with the notice his lordship
was prepared " to recommend the board to make an
allowance for house rent fur a short period after her
removal." The poor woman, horrified at the idea of
being turned away from her only means of support,
continued to expostulate with the authorities, and
to occupy her lodge till she was forcibly ejected, in
November last, and the building was pulled down.
Sent thus adrift she petitioned for the value of the
building on which she had expended her savings
and in reply the amount of twelve months' lodg-
ing at five shillings a week (121. 104.)
was forwarded to her. Not satisfied with
12/. 10s. as compensation for the destruction of a
building that had cost her 1301., she wrote sixteen
letters, but no notice was taken of them. She laid
her ease before the Queen : we are sorry to add that
she received a reply to the effect that the royal
bounty could not be extended to her —" more
pressing clainis" than those of the grand-child of the
man who had saved the royal great-grandfather
being upon her Majesty's list. At this point of her
distressing story, she contrived to interest the kind
Lord Ashler (the present Earl of Shaftesbury) on her
behalf, but 'his interference fiiiled in procuring her re-
lief. Reduced to the last extremity, she gut a
basket and a few cakes, " hoping to sell
them in the park to her former customers,"
and in the pursuit of this object she was taken
into custody, and on Wednesday last taken before
Mr. Hardwick, at the Marlborough-street Office,'
where, atter some time had been spent by the magi-
strate in making her understand that it was an
offence to sell cakes in the park, and a reluctant
promise not to sell cakes there again had been ex-
torted, she was discharged.
This is a history that speaks for itself. The offi-
cial heartlessness and contempt for the claims of a
poor, helpless woman, contrast instructively with
the deference paid to the most gentlemanly of
professions. Here is a poor woman, nut only
turned out of her own house, and sent into
the streets, but flatly refused the value of her
destroyed property. She receives 12/. 10s. in re-
turn for an outlay of 130/., and the withdrawal of
a liberty given to her ancestor for saving the Life of
a king! But then she is powerless: there is no fear
that she will write letters of exposure to the morn-
ing papers, therefore the clerks of the Woods and
Forests burn her sixteen letters, and the presiding
lord opines that she is not sufficiently powerful to
demand justice, much less to claim generous treat-
ment. She is only a stall-keeper, and of no ac-
count, therefore, in the official mind. Yet her re-
moval was not of paramount importance. It does
not appear that in the pursuit of her trade she
offended any person; on the contrary, a number
of the park frequenters petitioned in vain on her be-
' half. No, the secret of her wrongs is, that she was
poor and forlorn,and therefore might be tmmpled upon.
It is not now that the public learn fur the first time
where official magnanity breaks out, and where the
thumb of official tyranny presses with its whole
weight. " Without black velvet breeches what is
man," exclaims the snug official from the treasury
benches—to the man stripped of his shameful sinecure
awarding a glittering pension, and from the poor
creature, taking her house, refusing her even the
value of her bricks and mortar, and driving her into
a metropolitan police office to be dealt with accord-
ing to law. The haggard face of the once plump
keeper of the Hyde-park cake shop, told her tale
with sufficient eloquence on Wednesday last, and by
this time it is highly probable that Lord Seymour is
heartily ashamed of t he figure he makes in the narrative.
If the grandfatherof Ann Hicks could have foretold
the result of his service—could have known that his
grandchild would have been bullied into a police-
I court, at the time he had a firm hold of the royal
skirts in the Serpentine, perhaps—we say perhaps—
he might have been tempted to give the unwilling
bather another dip. It is something for Ann Hicks
to remember, in her garret, that at one time the
head of the House of Brunswick was more at the
mercy of her grandfather than she is likely to be,
even at the worst, at the disposal of the government
of to-day; for public sympathy in this country often
steps in to redeem the national character from the
charges to which official tyranny might otherwise
leave it exposed.

OUTRAGE UPON AN. AMERICAN BY THE

AUSTRIAN AUTHORITIES.