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

DAILY NEWS.—The establishment of People's
Parks in our large manufacturing and commercial
towns is a felicity quite peculiar to our own day, a
striotly modern fact, and it is at the same time one
of the most gratifying signs of our social and poli-
tical progress as a nation. Until quite a recent
period, excepting in the single instance of the Me-
tropolis, Parks belonged only to the privileged
classes, being 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 plea-
sure grounds, within whose dividing pale, from
year's end to year's end, only a single household or
a select circle ever entered, while the pent-up dwel-
lers in those towns had no means whatever of open-
air recreation except at too great a distance for any
but vagabonds habitually to enjoy. The rapid de-
velopment of our manufacturing, mining, and com-
mercial industry has no doubt tended, as Lord Rue-
sell points out, to increase these evils. The rapid
multiplication of mills and workshops will soon,
even in the most rural districts, absorb the Tillage
green, turn the way-side stream into inky slush,
and cover the adjacent fields with a mass of densely-
populated, squalid tenements. In a few years al-
most the only available recreation for a working
man in such a district after his day's toil is a pipe
on the door-step, a wrangle with his wife, or a pot
with his companions at the beershop at the corner.
But this serious incitiforal evil of our prospeeoue
industry is being rapidly corrected. In our day the
vanished village green is restored on a scale answer-
ing to the enlarged requirethents of a manufacturing
town over those of a country town or a rural ham-
let. Within the last few years many of our large
towns, such as Sdford anand have been sup-
plied with magnifici- Pi.ople;a Parks, and the
boon has in most cases et sit the -result of local muni-
ficence, the parks having been given in whole or
p-rt by merchants and manufacturers. Those whose
capital has most iv profi:ed by the modern
eencentration of ! '‘w;: thiN bEcri atnopgst the:
ti rat to 2TeicAni-,, f!tf, (t;. 1, of tto indubtril elf::sses,
by making ie t pisvilon ge"eryl scale
fur tinir comiurt mud I,creatior, and eijoyment.
I%.lrough the munificerxe of Sir 1). B?..xtr, Dundee
now add: d to the number or town.: thus favoured.
The beautiful park which this public-spirited mer-
chant has presented to his fellow-townsmen was
opened on Tuesdays Lord Russell 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 populous
city pent' a rest from exhausting toil amid scenes
which invigorate the body,'and turn the mind to
the contemplation of the wonderful works of God."
The political allusions of Lord Russell's address, if
deficient in the charm of novelty, were nevertheless
pecnliarly fitted to such an occasion. We have no
doUbt heard before of the noble lord's share in the
repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, 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 true cause. There is a far closer connec-
tion between the Parliamentary Reform of thirty
years since and the People's Parks of today than
careless 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 accumulated 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 public
justice, with the measures in favour of political and
religious liberty it produced. did much to remove
the bitter alienation that had grown up between
the governing classes and the people, established
an understanding between them, and laid for the
first time a solid basis of future action for the elm-
mon 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 terribie
social and political condition of Eugland 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 sympathy
Sand support, but waged an active and determined
warfare against the people. Jr was the era of the
Hampden Clubs, the march of the Blanketeers, the
so-called Derby insurrection, and the political trials
for alleged blasphemy and sedition. At the time
when Lord Russell first entered public I ife the govern-
ment of the clay demanded and obtained from a
subservient Parliament a suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act, on the plea that the existence of clubs
and societies in favour of Parliamentery Reform
was a public danger, demandicg this extreme men--
sure. Then, as now, Lord .itusiell woe the cham-
pion of public justice and popular rights, against
the encroachment of arbitrary power ant.' the sT.lfisti
violence of a privileged' class. One of his first
speeches, it will be remembered, 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 our an-
cestors. I wish we would imitate the courage of
our ancestors. They were not ready to lay
every
their liberties at the foot of the Crown uponee veenernye
vain or imaginary alarm." In th. e same
earnestly warned the House agarnstlosingp else re-
spect of the people by refusing to listen to their
grievances. ." Let not the Reformers say—When
we ask for redress you refuse all innovation ; when
the Crown asks for protectionnyo to go an inch--
sanction a new
code. For us you are n
for Ministers you go at willing
mile. Whn we ask for our
rights, you ought not to touch the little finger of
the Constitution—but when those in authority de-
mand more power, you plunge your knife into its
heart." When Lord Russell used this bold and
patriotic language, all the world of fashion, in-
fluence,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 pardonable, but
in a high degree encouraging and instructive.

Another political murder has just been committed
at Warsaw on a man named Richter, the head of the pass-
port-Oleo, who had recently been engaged in organizing
none police. He was stabbed to the heart in the street close
to his own door.

SEIOCIONG GUN ACCIDENT AT WARRINGTON.—
An accident, attended with fatal consequences, oc-
currod on Monday. Two young men, named Peter Ken-
virl3ht and Wm. Durkin, went to the house of John Me
tic street, and borrowed a gun, Meo was not at
ihnorinlea,Ybdu-t-kh-iei wife, on being asked by Kenwright if the
gun Was loaded, salu she did not know. The young men
then event together to the shop of Thomas Lowe, butcher,
-v04,1 ik-street. Kenwright went into Lowe's house for
purpose of rt °curing a powder flask and shot bag, low-
the
Nvho held the gun, at the shop door, Durkin
jag Durolill
stood with the gun resting on his foot, but, by some means,
he let it fall, and, the hammer coming in contact with the
ground, an explosion was the result. The greater part of
the conte•uto were lodged in the head of a boy of Lowe's,
four years of age, who was playing about in the shop.
The boy was killcu instantly. :Durkin, in a state of great
and gave himself into custody.
alarm, went to the poii: A .
The chief constable, howeVi.:"' finding there was no blame
-ifacbed to him, did not dot- 4ll
EADVEnTrSEmENT:I—CoII6RnIptIOII, Y?*,
liver, and stomach complaints, I,:
,•tea
gravate and acceler tied by di ugs of every di-*.eitpilO'iri
portcc ly chrable by Po berry's health restoring Itevalentil
ArabiCa real, as proVed by cloiikolits of cases which nail
been considered hopeless. We quote a few -Cure No. 62,014.
liifs,Lylie; 18 years curekl alter the medical men had
. dtuoneu ail hope of lt r recovery from tee last stage of
pulmonary consumpt:on, with f arlui co gh, expectoration,
exhaustion, spitting of bloo i, perspir itions, hollow cheeks.
emaciated to a ek.luton. is thank God, a perfectly
healthy, bloorulit;,e, fleshy girl.--.'. Commisaire de
Police. Cure, No. 4,1,270. .31r. lames Roberts, of Frimley
Surrey, of flirty years' dficasei lungs, spittingof blood, livGr
derangement. and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Miss
Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion.,
gatherings, low spirits, and nervousfancies.—Cure, No.
54,816. the Rev. James Campbell, Fakenham, Norfolk,
of indigestion and torpidity of the liver, which had resisted
nil medical ',;reatment. in fine, ill,, 2s 9d; 21b, 4s Gd; 51b,
ifs; 121 h, 2i's; ?Alb, 405. Barry du Barry and Cu., No. 77,
liegent-stre4 it, London ; also Fortnum and Mason; and all
arocers p),t vi-=mite in every town Qt thci--TUitetlli,ittgdOta,

—ous, bilious
^nly ag-
.