The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TlMES.—Birmingham has long enjoyed a repu-
tation for successful counterfeits, but all former
specimens of its craft are totally eclipsed by the
magnificence of that now revealed to the public.
Few people will have forgotten a certain memorable
event of the year 1858. A Royal visit was paid,
on a most interesting occasion, to the town of Bir-
mingham. The authorities or the leading inhabi..
tants of that opulent and populous borough had re-
solved on providing its working classes with the
invaluable advantage of an open park for their re-
creation and exercise. This judicious design was
earried into execution ; a suitable site was selected,
" the People's Park" was duly formed, and when
the Queen acceded to the invitation of the Mayor
and other officials to proceed to Birmingham and
open the park for use, it was universally felt that
her Majesty's gracious compliance was not unde-
served. The scheme was beneficent enough to merit
Royal countenance, and that countenance was ac-
corded. Aston Hall and Park were delivered by
the Queen and Prince Consort to the people of Bir-
mingham for their advantage and enjoyment, and
the promoters of the undertaking gained signal
credit for their liberal and patriotic policy. A
strange story, however, has now come to light.
This park, which was thus offered to the people,
and which the Queen was thus asked to bestow,
had never been really acquired by the reputed
authors of the gift. The property had not been
purchased, nor had the money for buying it been
raised. Tne real owners were a certain banking
firm, who retained a natural right of resuming the
estate in default of the requisite satisfaction in law-
ful money. What sum was demanded for the
park, what amount was actually contributed, or
what designs were entertained for procuring the
remainder, we need not inquire, but a correspon-
dence which we yesterday published contained
evidence enough to prove that when Birmingham
acquired such a distinction five years ago the
price of her honour had not nearly been paid. In
short, it comes to this—that if what ought to have
been done in 1858 is not done now and that quickly
the People's Park at Birmingham will be the
People's Park no longer, but will relapse to the
owners, who have been willing to sell it, but who
have never been able to get their money. With the
correspondence itself the public must have been
greatly edified. In October last the late Mayor of
Birmingham, discerning the impending "catas-
trophe," and feeling that the ejection of the people
from the Park which they bad received at the
hands of their Queen would " be stigmatised as a
disgrace to all parties concerned," addresses himself
in his difficulty to the Lori-Lieutenant of the
county. In this communication the facts of the case
are admitted without disguise. 'To save the Park,
or, as we should rather say, to acquire it, a sum of
no less than £28,000—representing we believe fully
two-thirds of the whole purchase-money—is imme-
diately needed. The Mayor thinks the Town
Council could be successfully moved to provide
L 20,000, and it strikes him that if the Lord-Lieu-
tenant would move the County to provide £B,OOO
the thing could be done. To this suggestion Lord
Leigh replies by a very natural remark that if the
Corporation of Birmingham requires £28,000 for
purposes essentially proper to the town, and is
ready to vote £20,000 of this amount, it would
surely be better for so wealthy and important a
body to go one short step further and raise the whole
at once, instead of soliciting contributions from gen-
tlemen at a distance who had already subscribed
enough to indicate the interest they had in the pro-
ceeding. However, not to be abrupt in the matter,
his Lordship undertakes to consult the County
magistrates at the next Quarter Sessions, and then
to send the Mayor an official reply. But for this
reply the Mayor does not wait. He interposes a
brief but emphatic epistle to the effect that, even if
the Council had the means of raising so large a sum
as £20,000, "they Bever could be induced to apply
that amount, or, indeed, any larger amount than
he had mentioned, in the purchase of Aston
_ _

.._
Park ;"_ so that, he adds, " unless we have help,
the catastrophe which every right-minded person
must deplore will inevitably and immediately ensue."
The help did not come. Lord Leigh had intimated
to the Mayor in a friendly tone that, as the object
of the Park was to benefit the Birmingham people,
as the design was conceived by the Birmingham
authorities, and as the Queen had patronised the
scheme on the invitation of Birmingham, Birming-
ham ought to be at the charges of the undertaking ;
and in this reasonable view of the case the gentle-
men of the county appear to have concurred. The
magistrates expressed an opinion that the Lord
Lieutenant should not move in the matter, and so the
Mayor and Council were left to their own resources.
In this predicament they took another and a still
more objectionable step. With a strange blindness
to the character of the case, the Mayor ventured on
placing it before her Majesty. from whom, if from
anybody, such a revelation should have been care-
fully concealed. Availing himself, with strange
infelicity, of the communication made by the Queen
in July last on the subject of the accident in Aston
Park, the Mayor enclosed to Sir Charles Phipps the
correspondence which we have described above. If
this measure was adopted in the expectation of
obtaining from her Majesty what had been vainly
besought from the gentlemen of the county, it failed
in its purpose; but it produced a reply from which
the Birmingham authorities may derive iestruction
and profit. Her Majesty'znuch regrets to hear of the
contingency which the Mayor describes, having
s
hoped, as of courseevery body else did, tha_%trhke
which
required for securing to the people the
ti Park
was given to them" had been permanetno
g believe that,
But her Majesty " is still unwellwinialth is found in
fecwuhreichtothtehye
7 provided."
in a locality in which so muctri
by
which it is pro-
proximity to the hard labour
ent wanting
estimateth e
which
value
tyo theos
it temporary
duced, funds can be
population an
o nt a I Ipegnhjtoyt om
ark and of would be
very
husaeveofbeAesnt
injudicious
will be felt by every person in
and undesirable now to d •
wordsa the authorities of
B.eprive
them." In
whatthesee ming_
haul may read
when the story is k
shortcomings
the country known. The least
they can now
do is to make good the
of five years since, and it would have been more
discreet to have done so with as little publicity as
possible. It was, of course, assumed
by the Queen
and by the public, when, this Park
was opened with
Royal pomp, that the had estate
ac-
quired by those who enjoyed really been
the credit of presenting
it to others. Even if the purchase-money had not
been actually or wholly paid down, it should
have
been so provided for as to leave no doubt about the
finality of the bargain or the completeness of the
' gift. W© all know that public works are occasion-
ally saddled with debts, and that if no new building
' were opened till it had been absolutely paid for very

few would ever be opened at all. But there is a
limit to the margin allowable in such case, and that
limit the Birmingham authorities have very largely
exceeded. We are told, indeed, that of the £40,000
which the Park was to cost, not £lO,OOO had ever
been raised, so that Birmingham got the credit of a
liberality which had never been exercised, while the
presence of Royalty itself was invoked to lend a
splendour to the counterfeit. This is going a great
deal too far. The promoters of Aston Park were
under no obligations to do as they did; but if they
chose to express this solicitude for the welfare of
their poorer fellow-townsmen, and to present the
people of Birmingham with a public Park for their
recreation and enjoyment, they were bound to pro-
vide the price of the gift before they appropriated
its credit, and, above all, before they solicited the

Queen to become the donor of the prize.
POST..—Tbere is no class in the country that has
held its own against a crowd of adverse circana-,
stances so bravely and successfully as that which
has this week been exhibiting some of the results of
its industry and perseverance in the Agricultural
Hall at Islington. The British farmer has had to
meet difficulties that he of all men was the least
prepared to encounter, and he has not only over-
come them, but has renewed his strength in the
struggle. For a while his heart failed him, and he
felt as if he was too old to begin life again on a new
system. But better and more hopeful thoughts
prevailed, and, in bracing himself to the needful
exertion, he awoke for the first time to a full appre-
hension of his natural ability and his proper post-
tion. Like Sydney Smith, who said he hardly'
knew a turnip from a carrot when he set about
tilling his own glebe, the farmer brought himself to
study the whole art and science of cultivation, and,
laying aside old ideas and old implements, adopted
every mechanical invention for economising labour
and improving the land. He saw that he must
keep abreast of the age in which his lot was cast,
and he mended his pace and conformed to the com-
mon requirements of progress. He called upon his
energy, and, as a good steed answers to the tighten-
7.ng rein, it came in time to carry him over the
difficulty ; and now competition has long ceased to
be a terror in his way, and he even rejoices in a
rivalry which has established his superiority as an
agriculturist and elevated his character as a man.
Still there are some who, more witty than wise,
persist in amusing themselves at the expense of
the British farmer, and the cattle show especially
is made a target for their spent ridicule. For the
most part it is evident that these humorous critics
are laughing in the dark. They talk about cattle
as they talk about Rosa Bonheur's paintings;
and though they can relish a prize sirloin when it
is cooked and served up to them, as to its produc-
tion they admit frankly enough that they are is
the hands of the graziers and the butchers. But,
underlying all this affected indifference, there re-
mains the solid fact that we are as a nation parti-
cular about our food. Even those who eat hastily,
in moments snatched from business, appreciate a
juicy steak or a tender chop. The procuring of good
and wholesome meat is, indeed, a matter of general
concern, and if but few of us look minutely into the
process by which it is obtained, we are all inte-
rested in the result. We have to pay a high price
for prime joints, and we expect them to answer
their description. Besides, so much has been said
of late about diseased cattle, and the necessity for
veterinary inspection, that what was used to be only
a question of taste and luxury had become one of
health and safety. The importation of foreign
cattle has been attended with very disastrous con-
sequences. The free trade in live stock has beet
worse than a failure, for it has cost us more
through the disease it has introduced, than can be
reckoned in the present market price of meat, which
is also to be charged to its account—and a measure
which was recommended for the benefit of the poor
has actually been the means of placing animal food
out of their reach. There is now, therefore, this
special reason for encouraging home production
and if art and science are fostered and promoted by
exhibitions, and if the blood and breed of horses
are maintained by race meetings, it seems, to !ay
the least of it, unreasonable to undervalue a Christ-
mas cattle show, including as it does an annual
gathering of persons from every part of the king-
dom who are engaged in what is, after all, the
primary and fundamental occupation of the Eng-
lish people. As regards this year's show, it is
considered to have been quite up to the average.
There has been no falling off either in quality or in
form—and if there has been no new feature, nothing
claiming prominent and marked recognition, no ex-
traordinary instance of merit, it has not been owing
to any want of interest in the competition. The
Smithfield Cinb, too, is in a flourishing condition,
having a handsome cash surplus in reserve, and
with the moans of increasing the premiums it offers
—and, with a new and popularised constitution,
there is every r eason to expect that its future pro'
ceedings will sustain the confidence the agricultu-
rists as a body place in the justice of its decisions,
and warrant the public support which has been
largely extended to it. There are interests this
country cannot afford to neglect, and that which
has been represented at Islington is one, and the
chief of them. Every other interest is more or
less subject to external influences—but this, like,
the nation of which it is the staff, is independent 01
all foreign control.