The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-25 00:00:00

THE SIM, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 18654

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

SHAMEFUL CRUELTY.—Henry Field, a carman in the
employ of Mr. IC4nd Allaire, dyer to her Majesty, of No. 1,
Conduit-street, Regent-street, and 72 and 73, Mortimer-
street, Cavendish-square, was charged before Mr. Knox,
at the instance of Mr. William Love, chief officer of the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,
with cruelly torturing a horse by working it in an unfit
state.

The horse was brought to the mews at the back of the
court for the magistrate's inspection, and its appearance
was truly shocking. Besides having scars nearly all over
its body it was so lame in one leg through disease of the
hoof that it could only hop along. _

Simeon Sell, an officer of the Royal Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals, said.that while in Conduit-
street, Regent-street, he saw the defendant in charge of the
horse attached to a van. Seeing the horse was standing
on three legs ho examined it and found it suffering from
disease of the hoof of some standing, and to be besides
totally unfit for work.
The defendant said the van had only about one hundred
weight in it at the time.
Mr. Knox, after viewing the horse, said he would remand
the defendant, and a summons could be taken out against
the owner.

A person attended on the part of the owner of the horse
and said ho was willing to have it killed at once, and tho
horse was taken away for that purpose, the officer of the
society accompanying it to see that it was put out of its
misery.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.
RUGBY RACES—THIS DAY.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
These races were postponed until Monday. Snow very
deep.

FARMERS' MAIDEN PLATE (Yesterday).
The winner of this race objected to.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

GRAND MILITARY AND RUGBY HUNT STEEPLE-

CHASES.-FRIDAY.

These sports were held over the same course as last year,
near the village of Clifton, about three miles from Rugby.
The ground, which is the pick of tha Pytchley country, is
all grass, and a most happy selection was made, the view
of the running being uninterrupted. Doubts were enter-
tained of the steeplechases coming off, as the frost was so
severe that even the running streams were thinly coated
with ice, and snow remained under the hedges and in the
shade. A most damaging canard was industriously circu-
lated at Warwick on Thursday, to the effect that the
steeplechases would not come off at Rugby, but were ex-
pected to take place over the Warwick course. It is useless
to remark that the report had not the slightest foundation,
and the conduct of the originator of the rumour has been
highly censured. The weather opened fine, but the air
was keen and frosty, and at times thin, fine snow fell
amidst sunshine. The card contained four races and a
match, and as will be seen from the appended report pro-
duced some excellent sport.
The Grand Military Gold Cup, value 100 guineas, added
to a Sweepstakes of 10 sovs each, h ft, with 100 sovs
added, for horses the property of officers on full or half-
pay of the army and navy and embodied militia ; 12st
each ; winners extra ; gentlemen riders. Three miles

over a fair hunting country.
Mr. Stevenson's (12th Lancers) Glencairn, 12st (Owner) 1
Major Ainslie's (Royal Dragoons) Remedy, 12st
(Captain Tempest) 2
Lord Adare's (Ist Life Guards) Who Dare Say 800, 12st
(Mr. Harford) 3
The following also ran :—Merrimac, Bell's Life, Podarces
Winifred, Simpleton, and Contralto.

Betting-7 to 4 agst Merrimac, 3to 1 agst Remedy,
6 to 1 agst Bell's Life, 7 to 1 agst Podarces, 10 to 1 agst
Glencairn, 100 to 8 each agst Contralto and Who Dare
Say 800.
Glencairn made play, followed by Who Dare Say 800,
Merrimac, Podarces, Remedy, Bell's Life, Winifred, and
Simpleton, in the order named. Contralto having refused
at the first fence, was left two fields in the rear, and subse-
quently refusing, was pulled up. After going half a mile
Glencairn and Podarces refused, and became last, the run-
ning being carried on by Remedy, who, however, was re-
passed by Glencairn in the succeeding half-mile, and he
held the lead past the stand, soon after which he refused
again, and descending• the hill Merrimac took up the run-
ning, but was soon passed by Remedy. Glencairn, mean-
while, rapidly made up his ground, resumed the lead more
than half a mile from home, and though closely attended
by Remedy and Who Dare Say 800 over the brook, he
continued in front to the end and won a good race by two
lengths ;Who Dare Say 800 a bad third; Bell's Life fourth,
Merrimac fifth, Winifred sixth, and Podarces was seventh.
Simpleton, who refused several times, was beaten off.
The Grand National Hunters' Steeplechase of 10 sovs each
with 100 added, for hunters not liable to the race-horse
duty ; four-yr-olds and upwards ; gentlemen riders ;
winning jockeys 51b extra. About four miles.
Mr. John Merry's St. Lawrence, 5 yrs, 12st 21b
(Mr. Percival) 1
Mr. Calder's Farnborough, aged, 12st 101 b (Mr. T. Parker 2
Mr. Butler's Grey Momus, 6 yrs, 13st llb (Capt. Tempest 3
Mr. T. Ivens's Dewdrop, 4 yrs, 13st 11b ...(Mr. Ellison 4
Mr. W. Mytton's Electra, aged, 13st 11b (Mr. Lawrence 5
The following also ran :—Blackberry, Revolter, Alonzo,
Lady Godiva, and Anne Page.
Betting-2 to 1 agst St. Lawrence gelding, sto 1 agst
Farnborough. 6 to 1 agst Grey Momus, 10 to 1 agst any
other.

The St. Lawrence gelding led fOr a short distance, when
he gave way to Anne Page, who, falling at the fence pre-
ceding the broo& after going rather more than a mile, Gr y
Momus closely attended by Blackberry, went on in front,
Dewdrop, Farnborough, Alonzo, Electra, and the St. Law-
rence gelding being well up. About a mile and a half from
home Electra ran to the front, but in the next half-mile
Grey Momus took a commanding lead. The latter closed
up with Farnborough after getting over the brook, and the
two raced home together. The St. Lawrence gelding, who
had been lying a long way off, rapidly drew up in the last
half-mile, came with a rush when the other two were ap-
parently standing still at the top of the hill, and won on
the post by a head ; a length separated the second and
third, and the others placed were the only animals who
passed the post.
A Military Match, £lOO, h ft; list ilb each. Grand

Military Course.

Major Ainslie's Miss Arthur (Captain Tempest) 1
Capt. Maurice's Fitzgerald's Kate (Mr. Lawrence) 2

Betting-3 to lon Miss Arthur, who made all the run-
ning, and won by 20 lengths.

The Veteran Stakes of 10 sovs each, h ft, with added
money ; 12st 71b each; winners, 71b ; twice, 141 b extra.
Military Steeplechase Course. .
Captain F. Yates ns Charity Boy, 13st...(Capt. Ricardo 1
Mr. Duffield's Bounce, 13st 71b (Capt. Coventry 2
Mr. Carew's Tommy, 12st 71b (Capt. Barclay 3
Hermit and Julia also ran.

Betting-12 to 10 agst Bounce, 3to 1 agst Hermit, sto
1 agst Charity Boy, 6 to 1 agst Tommy.

Won by twenty lengths ; a bad third.
The Farmers' Maiden Plate of 100 sovs, for hunters; four-
yr-olds, 11st 121 b ; five, 12st 71b ; six and aged, 13st ;
about 3 miles. 20 subs.

Mr. W, Daniel's Basilisk, 5 yrs, 12st 71b ...(Mr Parker 1
Mr. Jas. Milward's Lady Stanford, 12st 71b (Owner 2
Mr. W. Berridge's Vanity, 6 yrs, 13st (Mr. Johnson 3
The following also ran :—Telegraph, The Monkey, Sober
Robin, Blackbird, Ilarkaway, Velox, Despised, Rosalie,
Fugleman, The Count, Sultan, Rocket, and Mayfly.
Betting-5 to 2 each agst Basilisk and Lady Stanford, 6
to 1 agst Mayfly, 10 to 1 agst any other.
Won by four lengths ; two lengths between second and
third.
The Selling Steeplechase did not fill.

BETTING AT MANCHESTER—FRIDAY•
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE STAKES.
9to 1 agst John. Davis (taken freely)
9 to 1 agst Skeffington (taken and offered)
100 to 7 agst Huntsman's Daughter (taken)
100 to 7 agst Vest colt (taken)
100 to 0 agst Battaglia (taken)
44)(kto - 6 agst Hartley (offered)
v- CITY AND:‘ 8031.11 BAN:
10 to 1 agst Mce-stissima filly (offered)
20 to 1 agst Lady of Coverdale (taken)
20 to 1 agst Agatha (off, t 25 to 1)
25 to 1 agst Peon (taken)
33 to 1 agst Moldavia (taken)
83 to 1 agst Mail Train (taken)
40 to 1 agst Accident (taken)
TWO THOUSAND.
8 to .1 agst Liddington (offered)
10 to 1 agst Bedminster (take 12 to 1)
11 to 1 agst Chattanooga (taken and offered)
100 to 6 agst Ariel (off, take 20 to 1)
25 to 1 agst Breadalbane (Wren)
CHESTER, CUP.
10 to 1 agst Lord Zetland (offered)
13 to 1 agst Lion (taken)
13 to 1 agst Ackworth (offered)
25 to 1 agst Hightlyer's darn colt (taken)
66 to 1 agst Persuasion (taken)
100 to 1 agst Merry Hart (offered)
THE DERBY.
11 to 2 on the field (offered)
11 to 1 agst The Duke (taken freely)
25 to 1 agst Oppressor (taken)
30 to 1 agst Chattanooga (taken)
33 to 1 agst Ariel (taken)

Freemason Government in Portugal.

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Tablet:—

Sir,—Many thanks for the insertion in your proto-
Catholic paper in London of my letter of the 22d
last. Thank God that the Catholic organs at last
begin to listen to the voice of truth and real fact in
regard to my country's just cause and lawful king—
both so deeply wronged by England ever since 1826.
Against such truth the generality of the British
public have kept their ears hermetically closed for
the last 39 years, and the columns of almost all the
British papers have been denied to its assertion, all
through prejudice, the effect of most scandalous
and calumnious Masonic representation and false-
hood.

The British Catholics in particular owe my coun-
try—that is to say, its great Catholic and legitimist
majority—a great debt of reparation, by reason of
the mistaken support given (as I mentioned in my
last letter) to the freebooters who accompanied Don
Pedro to Portugal, with the deliberate intention and
prospect of plunder and profane robbery. I have
somewhere (though I cannot put my hand upon it
at the moment) a decoy song, which was stuck up
on the window of a crimping shop at Greenwich,
where ragamuffins were recruiting for the Pedroite
army in 1831. In some of the stanzas or verses of
this precious composition (if I am not mistaken,
and I think my memory serves me tolerably well),
one of the inducements offered to the braves
(ruffians) invited to assist in the holy cause was,
that they would be able in Portugal forcibly to
enter convents, rob them, &c. The burden, or
refrain, to be repeated after each verse, I remember
well, It was this :

Then who shall stop our hands
At what we like the best—
From plunder or from gold,
When we are in foreign lands ?

Such were the noble aspirations of those knights
of liberty and freedom (to themselves) whom the
British Catholics formerly so much contributed to
let loose upon my poor country, to rob, to profane,
and to destroy its most sacred and noble religious,
civil, and political institutions ! We, therefore,
Portuguese Catholics and Legitimists, have a
claim upon our fellow Catholics in Great Bri-
tain to help us, with their sympathies at least,
in redressing, in any possible way, so many
wrongs. as they have for so many years given
a willing and vaistaken ear to calumny, let
them hear at least now with some attention
the truth. They ought to know well now from
its fruits what sort of tree they helped in importing
and planting in the Portuguese soil. I will try to
help them in this knowledge, if you allow me to do
it in your columns, by adducing authentic facts, past
and present, that I hope shall leave no doubt in any
upright mind about the real character of the self-
styled liberators of Portugal.

When our revolutions, in 1829, 1830, &c., were
bamboozling the British public here, and through
the British press the rest of Europe, so as to get
from John Bull's pocket the millions wherewith
he helped them in ruining their most ancient and
faithful ally, they magnified and exaggerated to the
utmost the riches and treasures of the Church in Por-
tugal, especially of the convents and regular Orders,
as being ample security, when the patriots should
have triumphed, for the repayment of capital and
interest of the ruinous loans and contracts they were
making in this country—in the first loan some 22
per cent. was the real value they received for each
£lOO borrowed from the Jews here, and a good por-
tion of such value was received in bad stores, ac-
coutrements, &c. The Portuguese Church was to
pay for all that ; I remember how the correspon-
dent of the Times, when on one occasion he was re-
lating some festivity at the Cathedral at Lisbon, on
describing the mitre worn by the patriarch, which
the said correspondent had been contemplating
with covetous eyes, on account of the jewels shining
upon it, he observed that it would go a great way
to pay a large portion of the debt made
here for the masonic restoration of Portugal.
This happy restoration was at last effected,
thanks to the Jews, to Lord Palmerston, to
Louis Phillippe, and to immaculate Christina :
the property of the Church, secular, and regular,
was taken, and confiscated, and sold ; and the
Morning Chronicle in 1834-35, &c., published long
lists and accounts of the sales, and the immense
sums realised at the auctions. Stupid John Bull
was delighted and was clapping his hands, on read-
ing of such results, at the arrival of each Lisbon
packet, and applauding himself for the excellent
speculation he lad made in lending his sovereigns
to the Portuguese liberators. But the property of
the Church soon disappeared, and not a farthing of
the so-called National Debt was paid out of it. It
went by hook and crook into the hands and pockets
of the patriots, who were laughing in their sleeves
at Mr. Bull's simplicity ; and trusting to him an
to their delusions for new loans upon loans, which
they have not been stingy in contracting, whenever
their purse was emptied.

There was, however, still remaining a little pro-
perty, which, without being precisely Church or
convent property, was still in some way attached to
churches, and administered and dispensed under the
Church supervision, as being in the main the patri-
mony of the poor and helpless. Several times the
Freemasons have been casting longing eyes upon
this property—that of Confraternities, Misericor-
dists, hospitals, &c., as I mentioned in my first
letters; published by you. on 4th inst ; but they
had refrained froth seizing it, fBr fear of the indig-
nation of the people, especially in the provinces of
Minho and Beira. They remembered that the wish
of the notorious Costa Cabral to interfere with
such property had already greatly contributed to
the celebrated Revolution 1846, which would
have cost the good Queen de facto Lonna_ Maria
her unlawful throne, were it not then to: the
Citizen King (not long after Mr. Smith), who,
in some manner, forced England to sign the pro-
tocol of June, 1847, and •to co-operate through
Maitland's squadron, with the Spanish army, in
putting down both the Junta of Oporto and the
Legitimists. In justice to Lords Russell (then
Prime Minister) and Palmerston, it must be said,
that then they were for non-intervention in Portu-
gal; but (through the interference, I was told, of
Prince Albert) they were outvoted in council on the
point, and forced to interfere, as Mr. B. Osborne
distinctly stated in Parliament, without being con-
tradicted, in the magnificent and celebrated speech,
by virtue of which the electors of Middlesex were
induced to invite him to stand for the representation
of the metropolitan county, after the resignation of
Colonel Wood, in the same year, 1847.
_ .

That, however, which Costa Cabral failed in doing
by at once treating the charitable institutions as the
Church had been treated (that is to say by despoil-
ing them sans facon), the present Freemasons in
Lisbon want to effect by deception and humbug.
Reversing the practice of the old alchymists, who
tried to convert all sorts of things into gold, the
Lisbon Masonic Paracelsuses wish to turn every-
thing valuable into worthless paper (and to
turn the valuables into their . own pockets), as I
formerly stated. The Masonic Chamber of Deputies
has already approved "in the generality " the
spoliating project of law, but petitions and re-
monstrances against it, written in energetic terms,
are being sent from several congregations to
the Chamber of Peers, imploring them not to
allow such disastrous measures to pass into law.
Had I not been these last days very much engaged
with indispensable work, I wouldhave sent you some
extracts of such petitions ; illustrative at the same
time of the value to the nation, and especially the
poor and miserable, of the institutions which will be
ruined by the perfidious law now proposed, and of
the crying injustice of such law. Not having had
leisure, however, to prepare such extracts, I will
send you the translation of my own protest, which
I wrote, had printed and posted by the Brazilian
and Lisbon packet, on the same day of the date :

PROTEST.
(Translation.)
" In the name of the lawful sovereign of Portugal, King
Don Miguel 1., by the powers I have from him, and in my
OWII name, by my own right, as a Portuguese citizen,
asserter and maintainer of the sole true and lawful consti-
tution of the kingdom, which could not be validly altered
or revoked but by the legal forms and means, historical,
well known, and used, in itself established ; in the name
of all the true Portuguese who agree with me and

SPORTING ITELLIGENCE—This Day.

CITY BETTING—THIS DAY.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE STAKES.
Bto 1 agst John Davis (taken)
Bto 1 agst Skeffington (offered)
100 to 7 agst Hartley (taken)
20 to 1 agst Thalestris (take 25 to 1)
.25 to 1 agst Bataglia (taken)
100 to 1 agst Mail Train (taken)
CITY AND SUBURBAN.
10 to 1 agst Mcestissima filly (taken freely)
20 to 1 agst any other (offered)
TWO THOUSAND.
9to 2 agst Liddington (taken)
9to agst Chatanooga (taken freely)
12 to 1 agst Breadalbane (offered)
100 to 7 agst Zambezi (taken and offered)
100 to 7 agst Broomielaw (offered)
33 to 1 agst Gladieteur (taken)
11 to 2 once laid against Liddington.
DERBY.
15 to 2 agst Liddington (taken)
10 to 1 agst The Duke (taken)
25 to 1 agst Zambesi (taken)

Commons and Open Spaces Round the

Metropolis.

EARL SPENCER AND WIMBLEDON-
COMMON.

The committee appointed to inquire into the best
means of preserving for public use the forests, com-
mons, and open spaces in and around the metropolis
met again on Thursday ; Mr. Locke in the chair.
Nearly the whole of the members were present.
Earl Spencer was called in and examined. In
reply to questions by Lord Bury the noble earl said,
—I possess considerable rights over Wimbledon-
common, and propose to dedicate a considerable
portion of those rights to the public. Those rights
are disputed. lam prepared with legal evidence to
substantiate them prinici facie. In a letter addressed
to my solicitor, dated the 31st of January, I proposed
to submit to Parliament an amended bill, with the
desire of having the whole case considered, so that
the scheme might be carried out in the form most
conducive to the public interests. I also stated my
willingness to acquiesce in the decision of the com-
mittee. When I wrote that letter I was not aware
that I should have the opportunity of coming before
this committee. I thought the measure would take
the ordinary course of a private bill, and be referred
to a select committee. lam quite prepared to en-
dorse what I said, and to consider any suggestion
that may be made, but Ido not wish to be exclu-
sively bound by anything the committee may de-
cide. I would give the fullest consideration to any
suggestion that might be made. lam glad to have
the opportunity of stating to the committee my rea-
sons for bringing the bill before Parliament. The
committee are aware of the increasing population
and increasing number of houses near Wimbledon-
common. I have within the last few years received
numerous complaints from the inhabitants ; they
complain of bad drainage, of encroachments on the
common, of rubbish disfiguring the common, of the
gipsies and tramps that frequent the common,
and various other things. Considerable uncer-
tainty exists with respect to the commoners'
rights, and that feeling of uncertainty is inju-
rious to the public interest as well as to my own.
I feel the importance of this large apace to the public,
and wish, as much as possible, to protect and retain
to the public use this large open space. lam aware
of the feeling which exists with regard to preserva-
tion of open spaces, and, sharing to a great extent
in that feeling, I proposed the measure to which I
have referred. Within the last few years there have
been many_ railway and other scheme&the promoters
of which have endeavoured to establish themselves
on the common. The uncertainty which pre-
vails respecting the different rights which exist in-
duced me to propose a scheme for the settlement of
the matter. I propose to drain the common, to
improve the roads, to remove nuisances, to regulate
common rights, to define and restrict my own
rights, and to dedicate to the public a space amount-
:7oo acres, under proper and responsible
ing to nearly
management. I pr,;Tose to run a fence round the
space to be dedicated to LL e public, and am quite
prepared to urge strong reasons —hy I think a fence
of some sort would be advantageous z..they.
public.
I am prepared to lay out any large sum for ta;.'Pur-
pose of drainage and improvement, and I think
fair way of meeting the expense will be to sell out-
lying portions of the common for that purpose. The
land to be sold is laid out in classes, and if the first
class is sufficient to meet the,expenses there will be
no necessity for selling the second. With regard to
the gravel, I propose to transfer to the public my
actual right in the soil. lam ready to consider the
best mode of giving these advantages to the public,
but if my rights are disputed I must reserve the
question for further consideration.

- Considerable doubts exist as to the relative rights
of the copyholders, the commoners, and the public.
Would your scheme remove these difficulties ?—lt
would place on a proper footing the rights of the
commoners and the public.
What encroachments have been made ?—Cattle
have been turned on the common by people who
claimed the right of doing so. On one occasion
there was a difficulty with regard to a sale of land,
and there have been indefinite claims with regard
to management. Last year two, if not three, rail-
way companies wished to come across the common.
The undefined rights which I possess do not enable
' me to deal satisfactorily with the common ; if the
bill passes it will give the public the enjoyment of
the common.
With respect to the scheme of drainage and the
improvement of the fences, do you mean to leave the
common as it is, or to dress it up ?—I have no wish
to make it a London park. I wish to retain the
wild heath-like beauty of the place ; but it is so un-
drained that at many times it is unhealthy to the
neighbourhood, and even in summer it is occasion-
ally quite a swamp.
Some misapprehension has arisen as to what is
called the inclosure. Will you state what sort of
fence you propose ?—I propose to make a fence
sufficient to keep out the gipsies' camps and wag-
gons. I have no wish to make it a high enclosure.
Without a fence it would be impossible to removethe
nuisance of the gipsies. There are various inlets to
the common, and it is almost impossible to prevent
them from encamping there. I believe a light fence
will be a great advantage to the public—a fence to
keep Carts from going on, and to keep cattle within.

If a fence should be placed there people in carriages
or on horseback could enter at the gateways.
With regard to your own rights, what have they
hitherto been ?—I have exercised the rights of pas-
turage, gravel-digging, and turf-cutting. I propose
to retain them. lat first proposed to work the
gravel myself, but I afterwards thought that a rent-
charge would be better.

You propose to give up all your rights, reserving
the estimated value of the gravel digging and the
residue of the profits of grazing after all expenses of
the park are paid ?—Yes ; I propose to pay off the
copyholders from the sale of the land, and that
there shall be no other rights except my own and
those of the public.

What is your proposal with respect to the ma-
nagement ?—I did propose to have the management
vested in the lord of the manor, but, thinking
that may interfere with the rights of the public, I
proposed to vest the management in some Govern-
ment official, the whole park to be subject to
certain bye-laws. That scheme did not appear to
be satisfactory, and I introduced an amendment
into the bill, placing the management in trustees,
one of them being the lord of the manor, another
to be chosen by the Crown, and the third to be one
of the Inclosure Commissioners. If these should
not be thought sufficient, I am willing to introduce
others. Some opposition has been made with re-
spect to the National Rifle Association ; but I pro-
pose to place the management in the hands 'of per-
sons who shall be independent of local influence.
With regard to the sale of land. I suppose it is
with that means you propose to pay the expenses of
the scheme?—The estimated value of the land
scheduled is about £44,000. The sale of land
is necessary for the purpose of carrying out the
details of the scheme. The cost of the improve-
ments will be about £14,000. The sale of a
small proportion of the land scheduled would
be quite sufficient to cover that expense.
The drainage will cost about £3,000 ; the fence,
supposing it to be a high one, like that round the
Regent's-park, will cost £4,800, but a mere post and
rail fence will diminish the expense materially. The
cost of the general improvements will be about
£l,OOO, of the lodges £2,000, and of the roads £l,OOO.
About £5,000 will be required for compensation.
What is the quantity of land ?—lt is 845 acres 1
rood 30 poles. Considerable objection is entertained
at Putney and Roehampton to the sale of any of the
land. It has been suggested that- the park might
be maintained by a rate, or by a public subscription.
I believe, however, that there would be considerable
difficulty in fixing a rate. I should prefer giving
up the common to a responsible public body rather
to any local authorities.

By the Chairman—The extent of the common is
about 1,000 acres. The quantity proposed to be
sold is 158 acres 1 rod 30 poles. The original pro-
position was to convert the remainder into an in-
closed park. I have some land in the centre of
the common. I have recently purchased the lease
of a mill there. I thought I might some day pos-
sibly build a house there, and therefore I have re-
served that portion of the property in the bill. The
inclosure of the common involves the extinction of
the present common rights and the necessity of
compensating their possessors. I do not know the
exact number of commoners, but the number of
notices served is 287. There are no freeholders, to
my knowledge, who possess common rights. The
expense of management is to be taken out of the
current receipts of the park. They will arise from
pasturage which will be improved by the drainage.
In the first scheme I undertook to keep up the park
and to take the pasturage, but when I gave up the
management I gave up the pasturage. Any surplus
would have belonged to me.

What is your present proposition ?--That the
whole of the proceeds of the park be placed in the hands
of trustees, the receipts from the pasturage, and also
from the gravel ; the receipts from the pasturage are
to pay the expenses of the park, the receipts from
the gravel are to pay my reserved rights.
Is not the principal question raised by the inhabi-
tants of Wimbledon,P utney, and other places, whether
the common shall be enclosed or not ?—That has
been put forward as the principal reason. Several
meetings have been held, at which resolutions to
that effect have been passed.

Is it your desire that this committee shall express
an opinion as to whether or no the inclosure of
Wimbledon-common would be an advantage ?—I
shall be obliged to the committee if they will consi-
der that point after hearing all that can be said on
the subject. It will be a great advantage to me to
have the opinion of the committee on that point.
Supposing the common to be kept as an open space,
would not the expense of keeping it up be necessarily
diminished ?—Not very much. If the expense of a
fence could be got rid of, there would be an in-
creased cost for supervision. I think it desirable
that the roads should be improved whether the coin-
mon is enclosed or not.

Supposing the enclosure to be given up, would
there be any occasion for a sale ?—Yes, for drain-
age and compensation for the commoners. The
drainage certainly might be effected by a subscrip-
tion among the inhabitants. The commoners have
agreed that their rights shall be put an end to if
thry are compensated. I believe I have the right
by law to enclose the common if I leave sufficient
for the commoners ; I can enclose by custom with
the consent of the homage jury. Any surplus beyond
expenses of keeping up the park would go to the
trustees.

Mr. LOCKE KING—If the decision of the com-
mittee should-be againgt _your _lordship, should you
withdraw the "bill ?-4 should not like to .plgdgrq
myself to do that. A considerable portion of the
public are in favour of the bill as it now stands.
Mr. J. SHELLEY---It might be a popular repre-
sentation to have the park under the control of the
Metropolitan Board. Ido not see any great objec-
tion to that, but do not like to pledge myself.
If there arc gates and lodges how are the public
to obtain access at all times ? If the trustees had.
had the power of closing the gates at sunset, would
not the practical effect be to prevent the public from
having access ?—That is not my intention. I have
no wish to interfere with the Volunteers. My object
is merely to prevent carts from going in and cattle
from coming out.

The CHAIRMAN If the committee come to the
conclusioii that the enclosure is not desirable, would
you be satisfied and still go on with the Bill ?—I
believe I should. l lam told I have no right, I
shall take such steps as my legal adviser may re-
commend to prove my right.
You would not consider yourself bound by the
decision either of this committee or the other com-
mittee, but would retain the right of withdrawing
the bill altogether ?—I cannot bizid myself uncon-
ditionally to say that I will accept whatever deci-
sion the committee may come to.
Supposing this committee should state that a
fence is undesirable, would you consent to abandon
the fence ?—I think very probably that I should.
Mr. Foster, the steward of the manor, was thert
examined as to the particular rights and customs
connected with the manor. He said he was not
aware that the public possessed any particular right
over the manor, and that Earl Spencer would de-
rive no benefit under the bill, but would be giving
up a valuable property. The amount of rent charge
to be reserved was a matter of compensation. Earl
Spencer actually possessed all those rights which he
proposed to hand over to the public.
The committee then adjourned.

THE MAY OR OF D 0 VER.—Captain Jeffery
Wheelock Noble, R.N., chief magistrate for Dover, died
after a short illness on Tuesday morning, at his residence
in Liverpool-street. At the time of his death Captain
Noble was the first upon the list for promotion to the rank
of admiral.—Cinque Ports Pilot.
REPRESENTATION OF NORTH HANTS.—We under-
stand that a numerously signed requisition has been pre-
sented to Sir Henry St. John Mildmay, Bart., of Dogmers-
field Park, requesting him to offer himself as a candidate
for the representation of the Northern Division at the next
election, which he consented to, and his address to the
electors will be immediately issued.
DEATH OF A BELGIAN STATESMAN.—BeIgium has
just lost one of her most illustrious public men—M. Lebeau,
member of the National Congress, and one of the persons
formerly engaged in drawing up the Belgian constitution.
He was several times Minister, and highly esteemed by all.
The King has sent to the widow an autograph letter of con-
dolence.