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 en open park for their re•
creation and exercise. This judicious design was
carried 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.
Tbis park, which was thus offered to the people,
and which the Queen was ails 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 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 had 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-Lieutanant 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 1128,000—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
£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 tie 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 never 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 s 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 bad 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 whice.
the Birmingham authorities may derive instruction
and profit. Her Majesty much regrets to hear of the
contingency which the Mayor describes, having
hoped, as of course everybody else did, that the means
required for securing to the people the Park which
was given to them " had been permanently p
in a locality in which so much
But her Majesty " is still unwilling to believe bieslirfeeovivieritahaitn,
proximity to the hard labour. bwye
secure to the
to temporarydep.ri
deprive
e
pro-
duced, funds can be wantthien g tawolthich it is
value of which they
popuiation an enjoyment
and of which it would be
have been taught to
use of Aston Park,
by
very injudicious and estimaten d e si r a now th-e
u the authorities of B•
them." In these words
ham may read what will be felt by every person in
the known. •ti
country when the story /
The least
they can now do is to make good the shortcomings
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 estate h
ad really been ac-
quired by those who enjoyed 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 to:. as to ea ve no doubt about the
finality of the bargain
or the completeness of the
gift. We 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 circum-
stances so bravely and successfully as that which
has this week been exhibiting some of the resits 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 thoughte
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 poi"
lion. Like Sydney Smith, who said he hard poi"
knew a turnip from a carrot when he set about
tilling his own glebe, the farmer brought himself r
study the whole art and science of cultivation, ow;
laying aside old ideas and old implements, adopted
every mechanical invention for economising labour
and improving the land. He saw that be Meet
keep abreast of the age in which his lot was 004
and he mended his pace and conformed to the con'
mon requirements of progress. He called upon his
energy, and, as a good steed answers to the tighte
rig 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 5
rivalry which has established his superiority as nil
agriculturist and elevated his character as a 113,":
Still there are some who, more witty than
persist in amusing themselves at the expense f),,
the British farmer, and the cattle show eSpeCi4l,l:7
is made a target for their spent ridicule. For the
most part it is evident that these humorous critics
are are laughing in the dark. They talk about o°l
as they talk about Rosa Bonheur's painting%
and though they can relish a prize sirloin when
is cooked and served up to them, as to its prod".°'
tion they admit frankly enough that they are
ut'
1°
the hands of the graziers and the butchers. B
underlying all this affected indifference, there re-
mains the solid fact that we are as a nation 1111:ritr
cular about our food. Even those who eat
in moments snatched from business, appreciate (61,
juicy steak or a tender chop. The procuring of go°l
and wholesome meat is, indeed, a matter of geneZ
concern, and if but few of us look minutely int° tie.
process by which it is obtained, we are all in";
rested in the result. We have to pay a high Pripet
for prime joints, and we expect them to alowd
their description. Besides, so much has been
s for
of late about diseased cattle, and the necessitY
veterinary inspection, that what was used to be 4°301
a question of taste and luxury had become one
health and safety. The importation of foreig'
cattle has been attended with very disastrous i.ecipil;
sequences. The free trade in live stock has uen-ra
worse than a failure, for it has cost us be
through the disease it has introduced, than es,°.,,h
reckoned in the present market price of meat, vt1"1-0,
is also to be charged to its account—and a ineastinoa
which was recommended for the benefit of the rod
has actually been the means of placing animal ifhio
out of their reach. There is now, therefore,
special reason for encouraging home productie°„
and if art and science are fostered and promoted 'els
exhibitions, and if the blood and breed of 11°1103,
are maintained by race meetings, it seems, t° Bt,
the least of it, unreasonable to undervalue a Chriusi
mas cattle show, including as it does an 9/314,
gathering of persons from every part of the etio
dom who are engaged in what is, after all, „,.
primary and fundamental occupation of the
is
lish people. As regards this year's show, i'de.
considered to have been quite up to the aver°lo
There has been no falling off either in quality er.ris
form—and if there has been no new feature, netblv,
claiming prominent and marked recognition, 11°
traordinary instance of merit, it has not been oscil;
to any want of interest in the competition.
Smithfield Cinb, too, is in a flourishing conditiea
having a handsome cash surplus in reserve, 5e1..0
with the means of increasing the premiums it oftel.
—and, with a new and popularised constituti°P;
°
there is every reason to expect that its future Pr
ceedings will sustain the confidence the agricell°,
rists as a body place in the justice of its decisioot;
and warrant the public support which has bee.s
largely extended to it. There are interests t°,,lta
country cannot afford to neglect, and that
has been represented at Islington is one, an or
rnori.,_e
chief of them. Every other interest is
less subject to external influences—hut thicsieuJr
the nation of which it is the staff, is indePen
all foreiga control.