The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-24 00:00:00

opinion of your Committee, viz., that the Treasury ought
not to be called upon to sanction the application of any
public moneys for the improvements in the immediate
vicinity of the Royal Exchange, without being pretit usl
satisfied respecting the plans and designs for the build
ing itself ; inasmuch as the expenses so to be incurred
being mainly designed for the purpose of better xhi-
biting the edifice, and of improving the communic et o 4
around it, the fitness of such an outl,v must materially
depend upon the character of the building, and the de-
gree in which it may appear calculated to fulfil the ob-
jects for which it is destined.
The immediate consequence of these r .solutions has
been that the new site proposed for the Royal Ex-
change has received the sanction of the Treasury, as
the first step towards obtaining, by competition between
different artists, designs and estimates for the new
building. No further delay is therefore likely to occur
in carrying into effect the suggestion of the Committee
of 1838, as provided for by statute in the last session.
The inititue of Treasury conveying the sanction in ques-
tion is appended to this Report.
Your Committee trust that, under this arrangement
the public will have ample security in the responsibi-
lity of a great public department, superadded to the
zeal and liberality of the Gresham Trustees, for the
satisfactory execution of this important improve went ;
and that while it is made the means of affording ad-
ditional accommodation to the mercantile community,
it may also contribute mitteri,dly to the eml.iellish-
ment of the city of London.
Towards the execution of the several criaroges re-
commended in the second Report of the Committee (I
1838 your Committee find that no steps have been
taken.

They have examined a competent officer of the de-
partment of the Woods and Forests, and have jg-
tained front him that no impediment or difficulty-told
stand in the way of carrying the proposed alterations
into effect, as suggested by the late Committeey.under
the direction of the Commissioners of that Board, pro-
vided the Treasury, to whom they are subordinate,
should give the necessary authority for the purpose
On the other hand, the Committee are assured by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer that the Treasury will be
quite prepared to adopt the proper measures for such a
purpose, so soon as provision shall have been made by.,
Parliament for enabling them to do so.
Under these circumstances your Committee are
of opinion that no time ought to be lost in bring-
ing in a Bill to empower the Lords of the Trea-
sury to. direct the execution, through the Com-
missioners of Woods, &c., of so many or suclagpart
of the improvements most particularly recommended by
the Committee of 1838 as it may be practicable to
effect by the application of the fun& provided by the
1 and 2 Victoria, cap. 100, remaining unappropriated
after defraying the charge of the alterations connected
with the Royal Exchange.
Your Committee are induced, by a view of the gra-.'
dually increasing produce of the coal duties, to antici-
pate that the resource thus rendered available will not
fall short of 200,0001. ; and they are much disposed`
by the result of all their inquiries, to believe that such a
sum, employed in aid of the capital which individual or
associated enterprise may reasonably he expected tio
bring to the execution of such works, will be found
sufficient to accomplish the following very important
improvements, viz.:-
1. The plan for opening a convenient thoroughfare
from the end of Coventry-street to the juoctibn of New-
port-street and Long-acre, combined with that which
has been suggested for the continuation of the line from
Waterloo-bridge already completed to Bow-street, from
thence northwards into Horn.
2. The plan for extending Oxford-street, in a direct
line, through St. Giles's, so as to communicate with
Holborn, in one of the several ways that have been
suggested.
3. The plan for opening a spacious thoroughfare be-
tween the populous neighbourhood of Whiteehapel and
Spitalfields, and the docks and wharfs of the river
Thames, by widening the northern and southern extre-
tremities of Leman-street, and by creating a new street
from the northern side of Whitechapel to the font of
Spitalfields Church.
Your Committee think it right to submit to the consi-
deration of the House, that in selecting from the re-
commendations of the Committee of 1838 these particu
lar improvements as the most fitting to be carried into
execution, with the limited means at present disposable
for such objects, they have been chiefly governed by the
reasons which governed the Committee of last year in
making their Report to the House , they appear to your
Committee to be the changes which are the most press-
ingly required, either for removing existing obstructions,
which now impede main lines of communication, through
which much traffic is constantly passing, or for creating
new and commodious thoroughfares in or near popu-
lous districts, by means of which additional facilities of
intercourse may be afforded to the metropolis in general,
while they would produce inestimable benefit, by im-
proving the health and moral habits of those districts in
particular.

Your Committee hare also to remark, that, in se-
lectiog these points for the commencement of what they
confidently hope may hereafter lead to an extensive series
of such improvements, your Committee, have borne in
mind the propriety and the justice of making an el:4lr
table apportionment of the limited funds`now
among the several quarters of the metropolis, by whtfse
inhabitants, as payers of the coal duties, they are chiefly
contributed.

fA large proportion of these funds having xi- ready
been assigned to improvements in the ne hbourhood
of the Royal Exchange, within the City of London it-
self, the suggestions now offered by your Gommittee
would extend the benefits of the remainder to districts
lying eastward of the limits of the City ; and also to the
westward district of the metropolis, and also to a
northern district, through which runs a main line of
communication between them.
Your Committee have received certain othfir plans
of suggested improvements, which they subjoin to their
present Report.

Upon the best means of augmenting the funds ap-
plicable to local improvements, so as to extend in a
wider circle the great advantages to be derived from
such meliorations, your Committee do not feel that
they would be warranted at present in offering a spe-
cific suggestion. They content themselves with stating
their adherence to the opinion of the Committee of
183 S that such funds- ought to be supplied, not from
tae general revenue of the kingdom, but by some
description of local taxation ; and finding it generally
expressed by the most competent witnesses examined
by former Committees, and also distinctly declared in
some of the petitions for further improvements pre-
sented to the House, that a small addition to the coal
_ _

duties would be the least objectionable of such
local impositions, your Committee entertain a strong
belief that a burden of that nature would be
cheerfully submitted to, if it should be made to ap-
pear to the consumers of the metropolis and its vi-
cinity that a comparatively small increase of the
present duty would provide a fund which, employed in
aid of private enterprise, would suffice to effect the most
essential of the proposed changes.
In this respect the public mind would, no doubt, be
materially influenced by the successful and satisfactory
execution of the measures now recommended ; and it
is for that reason, as well as upon other obvious public
grounds, that your Committee suggest that a report
should be annually laid before Parliament of the pro-
gress by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in
fulfilment of the pros isions of the Act under which it is
proposed that these alterations shall be effected. The
Reports thus submitted, more particularly if accompa-
nied by the opinion of the Commissioners (founded
upon professional inquiries) touching the probable ex-
pense, practicability, and relative utility of the several
other plans noticed in the Report of 1838, would afford
the best foundation for any future proceedings of the
same nature.

It is with these views that your Committee are in-
duced thus earnestly to recommend the early under-
taking and diligent prosecution of the measures which
have been specifically suggested in this Report. It is
confidently hoped that they will serve as an example and
an inducement for a more extensive application of the
same system of improvement, because your Committee
are convinced that if experience shall justify their antici-
pations, by showing that such important advantages may
be obtained by a trifling addition to local taxation, both
the Parliament and the public will be unwilling to suf-
fer any portion of London and Westminster to remain
without the benefit of spacious thoroughfares, and the
still greater advantage of a complete and wholesome
drainage ; and that this great city will, by a succession
of meliorations in all its most defective districts, be ulti-

mately rendered in every respect worthy of its high
station, as the largest, most opulent, and most commo•
dious metropolis in Europe.