The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-25 00:00:00

THE PROPOSED ROAD ACROSS ST.
JAMES XPARK.

The following .letters on this subject have been ad-
dressed to the editor of the Times :

Sir,—l have read with some surprise a letter from Sir
B. Hall, dated Llanover' Sept. 18th, upon this subject,
and as I do not at all concur with the facts that the
right hon. gentleman has laid down in that letter, I will,
with your permission, point out the fallacies of a state-
ment apparently plausible, but actually only calculated
to mislead the public, to destroy the landscape garden-
ing of St. James's-park, and, under the shallow pretence
of doing the public a service, to inflict upon them a per-
manent injury.
Now, Sir, if a person be really desirous of forming a
correct judgment upon this proposed route, let him take
up a map of London, and, always bearing in mind that
the intention of this new proposed route is to' construct
a public road for cabs and light traffic, not for omnibuses
and heavy traffic, let him compare the outlying districts
to be benefitted according to Sir •B. Hall's plan, and
those which would be benefitted by a road through
Buckingham-gate.
First, then, let me deal with the line proposed by, Sir
B. Hall. The right hon. gentleman says that his pro-
posed road would benefit the populous district of Laiii-
beth, and the populous district lying between the Vaux-
hall-bridge-road and the Thames. The populous dis-
test of Lambeth " sounds well, and would be admirable
in practice, too, were it not that the Lambethianiwould
have 'to cross Westminster-bridge to come over the
water : and, when on this side of the water, it would be
jitst as convenient for them to go up Whitehall, and
upon arriving at King Charles's statue to strike off east
and west, as it would be to take the proposed new road ;
and as regards the populous district lying between the
Vauxhall-bridge-road and the Thames, the other portion
of the population to be benefitted by the new road, why,
sir, they are not the class of people who make ude of
cabs at all, and if they did not use their legs they would
adopt the cheaper form of omnibuses ; and this is not
to be an omnibus route at all.

Now, as regards Belgravia, Pimlico, and Chelsea dis-
tricts which would be benefitted by a direct road, at a
fair distance from the Palace, from St. James's-street,
by Marlborough-home and through Buckingham gate—
which Sir B. Hall is pleased to call a comparatively
small portion of the population of the metropolis,—why,
even if they are so in actual numbers, is not the popula-
tion here of that portion of the public who make use of
cabs, and. are they not constantly obliged, from notions
of duty, of interest, and of pleasure to connect St.
dames'a with Belgravia, Pimlico, and Chelsea, under the
present citcumstances at the greatest possible inconve-
nience to themselves, and really upon no just grounds
why such inconvenience should exist at all ?

I say, therefore, that Sir B. Hall's treating Belgravia,
Pimlico, and Chelsea as a comparatively small portion
of the public interested, and putting forward this in-
genious plan of route as beneficial to the populous dis-
tricts of Lambeth and the district between Vauxhall-
bridge-road and the Thames, is a mere sham and blind ;
and, upon the specious plea of consulting the interests
of the public, he. is actually sacrificing those very inte-
rests at the foot of another and far different shrine. -
Sept. 22. A.

Sir,—l have been over the ground to-day where the
proposed new highway through the heart of St. James's-
park will terminate. It is that half-cleared rookery
which the Westminster Improvement Commissioners
have rendered famous; where building has been slowly
going on for some years, and not half the cleared ground
is occupied, and but one of the shops that have long
been built has found a tenant.

I am curious to know if the scheme for cutting up the
Park originated with those Westminster Improvement
Commissioners, or with some one who has been largely
building in the "fields." Are the gardens of the people
about to be sacrificed for the good of a elique ? In this
age of jobs people become suspicious, and there is really
a suspicious odour here.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,

INQUIRER.

Sir,—l have read the correspondence between Sir
Benjamin Hall and J. V. Shelley in the Times of to-day
with pain and regret, for it not only confirms the report
which I and many others had previously thought exag-
rerated or unfounded, of the contemplated cutting -St.
James's-park in half by running a great public highway
through the centre of it, but it further shows that Go-
vernment are utterly destitute of a reasonable pretext for
the destruction of one of the " lungs of London" which
this project implies. The only pleas which the First
Commissioner of Works advances are—first, that a road
from Pall-mall through the. Green Park to the present
road in front of the palace would cut up the Green Park.
Now, it must occur to every one as a very strange thing
that Sir Benjamin Hall should exhibit so much affection
for the Green Park, which is but little used in compari-
son, whi'e he plunges headlong, into a work of destruc-
tion where the co:nforts and pleasures of the whole work-
ing population of London are concerned. He will not
sacrifice
.a bit of the Green Park, but he will coolly de-
stroy all the beauty and convenience of St. James's
Park-garden

And for what ? The inhabitants of that large and in-
creasing district called Pimlico or Belgravia, have peti-
tioned for a right of way for coaches and cabs from Pall-
mall. Therefore, the First Commissioner of Works will
give a road to Lambeth The hon. gentleman, appealed
to by the householders of Pimlico, will oblige them with
an easy way to Westminster ; and he appears to think
that a few dozens of chairs, and a band of music in Ken-
sington Gardens on Sundays, will reconcile the 2,000,000
of inhabitants of this densely crowded London, to the
sacrifice of their beautiful resort, St. James's-park.
I regard these things, sir, not only with pain, but also
some uneasiness. St. James's.:park is not, a place to be
sacrificed at the pleasure of any crotchetty individuals,
and the recent demonstration on the Sunday Bill should,
of itself, be an example sufficient to deter our authori-
ties from undertaking the contemplated scheme. The
mere deferring of it until Parliament reassembles but
defers the exasperation which so ill-judged a measure is
calculated to give rise to.
The House of Commons, unfortunately, is agreeable
to anything the Government proposes. My apprehen-
sions have reference to probabilities beyond a vote of
the House of Commons. It was the Queen of George IL,
I believe, who proposed to the Premier of that day the
clOsing of this very Park ; and, although not 50 people,
perhaps, entered its gates in four-and-twenty hours, the
Minister made such a reply to her Majesty as occasioned
the abandonment' of the project. I regret to find there
is none of the spirit of that Minister in Sir Benjamin
Hall.

I abstain from tr,uching upon the odium which may be
expected to fall elsewhere. My object is only to plead
for the preservation of the gardens of St. James's-park.
The "whole borough of Lambeth," which the First Com-
missionfr of Works proposes to accommodate, will have
one of the finest roads in the kingdopi when the new
Westminster-bridge is completed. There is no road to
Pimlico. But roads are a secondary question. I plead
for the preservation of the St. James's-park-gardens.
The public have approved the immense votes of money
for the improvement of the palace for the convenience of
Royalty, including, indeed, the absorption of a large
piece of the public highway ; and, as was remarked in a
recent number of your paper, it is surely not too much
to ask for a little reciprocity of sentiment. It will be a
cruel thing to cut a public highway through the centre
of St. James's-park.

ONE OF THE PEOPLE.

SERIOUS COLLISIONS BETWEEN THE FOREIGN
LEfION AND THE ROYAL MARINES.

Some serious collisions have occurred at Gosport be-
tween the men forming the German Legion and Royal
Marines. The Legionaries arrived at Spithead a few
weeks since, in the William M. Rogers, from Halifax,
Noah America, being about 550 in number, and col-
lected from all parts of the United States and Canada.
They comprised Germans, English, Scotch, Irish,French,
&c. They were quartered at Hasler, near Gosport, as
some symptoms of diarrhoea had appeared on board ship
among them, instead of being sent out at once to Shorn-
cliffs. It appears that on Friday night a party of the
Legion, all Germans, were drinking in a beerhouse in
South-street, Gosport, and that a number of men of the
Royal Marines. were also there, and that some, quarrel
.:ensued amongst them. To which party the blame of the
quarrel is to be attached it is impossible to say. From the
beerbouse the two parties sallied into the street, where a
regular fight took place. Fortunately, none of the combat-
ants had bayonets or other deadly weapons ; still they did
considerable execution on each other, the Marines with
their belts, and the Legionaries with sticks or anything
else that came in their way. After a struggle of gr-at
violence the latter had to retreat to their barracks. Tae
police force of the town, five men of the Hants constr-
bulary under Sergeant Howard, could do little or nothing
towards quelling the disturbance.' It was feared that on
Saturday night the fight would he renewed, and we Le-
lieve that Sergt. Howard requested that the. Legionaries
should be confined at night within barracks ; this unfor-
tunately was not done. In the course of the evening
some 50 or 60 of the Marines assembled in South-street,
when they were attacked byea similar force of Germans.
Some of the latter had armed themselves with wooden
rails, torn up by there from Government fences, but others
we are sorry to add armed themselves with knives. The
Marines had their belts again. The collision did not
last long, butit was furious, and many broken heads were
the result. Worse than this, two Marines were stabbed.
One of them had nothing to do with the affray, but
happened to be coming out of a shop as the Legionaries
were rushing by, when one of them aimed a blow at his
head, the point of the knife entering beyond the top of
the forehead, and opening it with a most ghastly cut
elmost to the eyebrow. Blood, of course, flowed pro-
fusely, and the man fell for dead. He was carried to
Haelar Hospital, where he remains ; but it is thought
impossible for him to survive. The other marine wag
stabbed in the body by the sharp end of a wooden nail,
or spike, but hot so severely. Several of the Legion are
cs.i A
laid up with serious bruises and cuts.
under
t a
the
fnotiiiron.wee i rend.
tir Twonta n ofe es tle Legion
thae feat
red,iinissinogf
from the barracks ; and a marine is now in custody
rr
the Germass on Friday night, some of them, to escape
from the fury of the marines, took refuge ih the first
house they could, concealing themselves in waterclosets,
&c. On the same night, on going to bed in barracks,
the marine in custody said to another, " Well, I did for
one of the -. I found him in a privy, and I
shoved him down and smothered him." This being re-
ported, the Marine has been taken into custody, and a
search was instituted yesterday of all the water-elosets of
the neighbourhood. The ill-feeling i s entirely confined
to the Germans and Marines'; the French, English,
Irish, and Scotchmen in the Legion are on the best
terms with the Marines, so much so that it is feared die-
ttuthances will arise in barracks .between. the Germans