The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1852.

Nearly 300,0001., after the payment of all the
expenses connected with the Great Industrial Exhibi-
tion, remained as the surplus in the hands of the
Royal Commissioners. Nearly 300,0001. stet.-
Hug And already it would seem almost every six-
pence of that magnificent sum has been expended.
Row this has been accomplished, the nation will
doubtless wonder'; but it will wonder still more when
it learns that it has been effected simply by the device
of purchasing a cluster of market gardens as the site
of a new National Gallery—this rather expensive site
being situated between Brampton and Kensington.
After this, Joruc Bute may well paraphrase what
has already been so delightfully paraphrased by DICK
Swiveeaxit. He may reasonably lament that he
never has a comfortable lade surplus in his pocket
but it is sure to be expended in the purchase of market
gardens 1 Here are three plums rolled away quietly
for the acquisition of a plot of cabbages and a cluster
of gooseberry bushes. Not a hodful of bricks, or
a trowelful of mortar has, up to this moment, bs
En
secured fur the construction of the projected galleries.
But then the site has been obtained. Yes ! and in
obtaining the site, the nation has had the in-
expressible honour of sharing from 200,000/.
to SOO,OOO/. comfortably and cosily between the
hitherto lords paramount of the land and seig-
neurs of the soil, between Monsieur to Baron de
VILLABS, and my lord the Earl of llAnitiNcerox.
It is really to:be regretted, that the entire transaction
has been closed so precipitately. For the use to which
the surplus was put, the Royal Commissioners must
have known that, directly or indirectly, they were
responsible to the nation et large—responsible so far
that they were assuredly to be looked tom.the mat-
ter, for something like a rational appropriation of an
amount so enormous. Yet acting, of course, solely
upon their own judgment, it would now appear that
the whole sum has been squandered upon the one
object of securing ground for a building to be devoted
not merely to the preservation of the pictorial trea-
sures of the nation, but also to the promotion generally
of arts, commerce, and manufactures. The object
of this enterprise, is, of course, we admit, at once,
noble enough in itself, and one which we should re-
joice to see kept in
,view more sedulously than it
been hitherto by
has the Members of the Impe-
rial Government. We bear in recollection with
unalloyed pleasure, the half promise that a
structure of this kind should be rai:ad in the
immediate vicinity of the Metropolis at the earliest
possible opportunity—an intimation given in the
course of his speech at tne last dinner of the Royal
Academy by the Right Hon. Gentleman the CHAN-
CBLLOR of the RICCI:IE4I3ER. It is high time indeed
that England should have some edifice of the cha-
racter here implied, more suitable to the glory of the
United Kingdom than the wretched monstrosity of
building in Trafalgar. square—the structure doing
duty as a cruet-stand in presence of two dumb-
waiters by way of fountains. Anything, we all
know, would be prefereble to the continuance of the
disgrace long felt in this direction—the disgrace of
pictures
beholding merely a portion of the national
decorating the walls of that odious architectural abo-
mination. Anything would be welcome in fact that
appeared to be calculated to bring about the desired
change—anything but the wholesale disposal of the
300,0001. surplus of the Exhibition for a group of
market gardens, agreeable by way of site, according
to the opinion, or perhapq, we should say, according
to the crotchet, of the., Royal Commissioners.
MOSES, in the " Vicar of Wakefield," selling his
father's colt for a gross of spectacles in shagreen cases

—JAcs, in the story of the Bean Stalk, parting with I
his mother's cow for a handful of mottled beans—
afford us tolerable illustrations of the bargain re-
cently made by the Royal Commissioners in the pur-
chase of a few market gardens between Brompton
and Kensington in return for the sum total of
nearly3oo,oool.,the surplus of the Industrial Exhibition.
Spectacles are, of course, very good things in their
way, and especially we might presume them to be
' useful to such a particularly short-sighted stripling
as the dupe of BALTHAZAR alias Jmucussom. Beans,
again, are capital eating no doubt when nicely pre-
pared and seasoned ala haricot. But surely it must,
on thefvery face of it, be regarded as a rather remark-
able act of extravagance, the purchasing, for a sum
so enormous, a collection of potato patches like those
intended for the site of our future National Gallery.
The bargain, however, bad though we cannot but
deem it, has been made—c'est un fait accompli—the
land is the nation's—the money is that belonging to
the Baron de VILLARS and to Lord HARRINGTON.
Forty-eight acres have been bought for 150,000/.—
twenty acres for 60,000/.—and smaller parcels of
land, at the rate of 4,0001. per acre, have been ob-
' tained in " hot haste" by the zeal of the Royal
Commissioners. There appears to be no help for
it—the ground referred to is now the property of
the country, and the House of Commons will conse-
quently be called upon to advance additional sums of
money for raising the superstructure. The " deed
being done," Parliament must make the best of it;
and we shall now, therefore, look forward with no
mall solicitude to the course about to be adopted in
the matter by the lower branch of the Legislature.

At present, the few valuable paintings belonging to
the nation are scattered about in various directions—
some of them, and those not the least interesting,
being only accessible with some difficulty, and under
particular circumstances. There is the noble collec-
tion in Trafalgar-square—disgraced by being depo-
sited in one-half of that miserable edifice, the other
half of which is appropriated to the Royal Academy.
There is the collection, in some respects still more
choice, at the Dulwich Gallery, with those exquisite
Pourssuis and incomparable MURILLO& There are
the specimens of the English school in the curiosity-
rooms of what is known as Sir JOHN SOARE'S Mu-
seum—comprising, among other treasures, some of
the most masterly productions of HOGARTIT. There
is the magnificent store of native works of art, now
decorating the apartments of Marlborough-house,
and renowned by the name of its public-spirited
founder as the VERNON Collection : and there are
other and smaller groups of paintings still more widely
distributed, and some of them, for that reason, almost
entirely overlooked. If these treasures of art could
by any possibility be collected together in a grand
central gallery, worthy of England and of her Metro-
polis, the citizens of London might not find such
ample reason to blush for our national want of taste
when visiting the gorgeous galleries of the Louvre,
and surveying the storied walls of the Luxembourg.
Under the particular circumstances of the occasion,
we must henceforth, therefore, look hopefully in this
matter to the munificence of the House of Commons—
a munificence more than ever requisite, now that the
whole of the surplus of the Exhibition has been ex-
pended in the purchase of those unfortunate market-
gardens, now that the amount, nearly reaching the
splendid total of 300,0001., has been exhausted, now
that the country may be:said, in plain terms, to have
bought a " pig in a poke," at the precipitate recom-
mendation of the Royal Commissioners.

The Common Law Procedure Act—one of the
most important measures of legal reform ever intro-
duced to, or sanctioned by, the British Parliament—
has at length come into practical operation. The
dynasty of JOHN DOE and RICHARD ROE—time-hon-
oured potentates— is overthrown ; writs of distringas,
whether for the purpose of compiling an appearance,
or proceeding to outlawry, are, henceforward and for
ever, abolished ; and special demurrers and rules to
compute will be numbered with the past. We have
frequently expressed our opinion respecting this im-
portant measure. It is unquestionably a step in the
right direction, calculated materially to simplify the
proceedings in the Superior Courts. It does not,
however, go sufficiently far, and will scercely be
accepted by Legal Reformers as a permanent settle-
' went of the question, or as full satisfaction of the
general demand for cheap and speedy justice. The
end of the wedge has, however, been admitted, and
the power of future resistance to reasonable altera-
tions will be greatly reduced.
The statute, which contains no less than 236 sec-
tions, exclusive of the schedules, is founded on the
report of the Common Law Commissioners, most of
whose recommendations have been adopted. It in-
troduces very important alteiations in practice which
may lead to considerable expense end vexation, until
the new system is thoroughly understood, and the
opinions of the judges have been taken on all doubt-
ful points which the ingenuity of counsel or solicitor
may discover. Its objc et is unquestionably meri-
torious. It aims at the abolition of useless techni-
calities, and allowing the decision of the Courts on
the merits of each action to be obtained so speedily as
may be consistent with a due regard to substantial
justice, and at a moderate expense. The forms of
action are, however, still retained, although the neces-
sity for such a course was strongly devised by com-
petent judges. The pleadings, too, are to be framed
in a formal manner, and forms are given in schedule
(B) as statements of causes of action which may
serve as precedents in similar cases.