The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-15 00:00:00

RECOMMENDATION TO OPEN THE CRYSTAL
PALACE ON SUNDAYS.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE COMMITTEE.
No intoxicating drinks to be sold without license.
Licenses to be issued by magistrates at sessions hold for
that purpose.
There shall bo one uniform license for the sale of intoxi-
cating drinks, that shall be open to all.
Persons obtaining licenses shall be bound, and the sureties
shall be bound, for their due observance of the law.
The lowest amount to be paid for a license in rstral
parishes and Email towns, shall be 61. in towns of 5,000 in-
habitants; and not exceeding 10,000, the license to be 81.,
and so on, but in no case to exceed 301.
Inspectors of public-houses to be appointed, to report upon
the condition and conduct of such houses.
Coffee shops, temperance hotels, and shell fish shops, to
bo required to be licensed, and visited and reported upon in
the same manner. The license to be issued for 21.
That, with the exception of from 1 to 2 in the day, and
from 6 to 9 in the evening, public houses bo closed on Sun-
days ; and on week days from 11 to 4 a.m.
That it is expedient that places of rational recreation and
instruction, now closed, should be opened to the public on
Sunday afternoons, at the hour of two o'clock, and that so
far as any such places are now closed by the operation of the
law, such laws should be so far amended as to enable the
Lord Chamberlain, or other competent authority, to deter-
mine what places should be permitted to be so opened, and
for what length of time.
That the several laws relating to the regulation of licensing
of beer-shops and public-houses, and places of entertainment,
and the several provisions of the Police and Excise Acts ap-
plying thereto, should be consolidated and made in accord-
ance with these resolutions.

THE METROPOLITAN BRIDGES.

We have just received an early copy of the report
submitted to the House by the Select Committee on
Metropolitan Bridges :
" Your committee have examined witnesses, with a
(
view to discharging the duty entrusted to them, and have,
in the first place, directed their attention to the atate and
condition of the several metropolitan bridges. With re-
spect to these, they have to report that, with two excep-
tions, namely, Blackfriars and Westminster, the whole of
the metropolitan bridges are in a satisfactory and durable
condition. Southwark, Waterloo, and Vauxhall bridges,
Charing-cross foot bridge, are toll bridges, in the hands
of private companies. As to Blackfriars-bridge, the evidence
brought before your committee leaves no doubt as to its
being in an unsatisfactory state ; and the Court of Common
Council has approved of a proposal for removing the pre-
sent structure, and replacing it by a new bridge. Your
committee do not consider it within their province to re-
port on the condition of Westminster-bridge, as a contract
for pulling it down and rebuilding it has actually been
entered into.
"With regard to the adequacy of the present bridges in
the metropolis to accommodate the existing traffic, your
committee have examined numerous witnesses, whose
opinion they consider valuable as connected with the
bridges ; and they report that the present accommodation
is insufficient ; that there is every probability of this defi-
ciency being still further felt, and that it is necessary to
adopt measures to mitigate the evil. To meet this end se-
veral schemes have been submitted to your committee : Ist,
It is proposed to open free of tolls those bridges which are
at present private property. 2ndly, To increase the width, and
consequently the convenience, of some of the existing
bridges. 3dly. To enlarge and improve the approaches to
them. 4thly. To make the Thames Tunnel available for
traffic. sthly. To construct a tubular iron superway, so
as to connect the most important points in the metropolis;
and, lastly, to build additional bridges.
" After a careful consideration of the ovidenco which
has been brought before them, your committee con-
sider that the expediency of removing the present tolls,
on the different bridges between Staines and London-
bridge, is established. They find that, by the pre-
sent system, the traffic is diverted from the direct route ;
and in consequence the open thoroughfares are choked, and
rendered at times almost impassable, by the collection of
merchandise and passenger traffic, which would disperse
and spread itself if there were wore channels of escape
provided. This inconvenience is especially felt at London-
bridge, where not only delay but even danger is incurred
by the concentration of traffic on one spot, owing not only
to the ordinary London traffic, but to the additional traffic
produced by the neighbouring railway termini. Similar
inconvenience is felt at Westminster-bridge ; and your
committee are of opinion that in both instances it would
be materially diminished if the intermediate toll bridges
were thrown open to the public. The evidence with re-
spect to the bridges from Vauxhall to Staines establishes
the fact that by the present tolls not only is the public in-
convenienced, local trade impeded, and the accommodation
diminished, but that the burden of the tax falls most
heavily upon those who are least able to bear it.
" Your committee are of opinion that, although it may
become necessary, owing to the ever-increasing traffic of
the metropolis, to build additional bridges, it will be better,
in the first instance, to ascertain the effect of throwing the
present toll bridges open to the public, provided they can
be obtained on reasonable terms.
" Upon the question as to whether additional bridges
are required, your committee have examined Mr. Bennoch,
Mr. Tite, Mr. Page, Mr. M'Lean, and other competent
witnesses. These witnesses agree in the necessity of pro-
viding further means of communication across the river.
" The sites proposed by them are-
-Ist. Tower-hill, below London-bridge,
2ndly. St. Paul's.
3dly. Charing-cross.
4thly. Horseferry-road.
" Without entering into the comparative merits of
these several propositions, your committee are of opinion
that the bridges opposite Charing-cross and St. Paul's will
become speedily necessary, especially should the negotia-
tion with the proprietors of the toll-paying bridges prove
abortive.

" With regard to the best mode of providing for the
purchase, and the future maintenance and increase of the
bridge accommodation, your committee are decidedly of
opinion that a rate to be levied over the whole of the dis-
trict to be benefited by the proposed alterations is at once
the most just and the most simple plan to be adopted."

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES. Yesterday a
bill in the House of Commons, bearing the names of
Lord Dudley Stuart, Mr. Isaac Butt, and Mr. Montague
Chambers, was printed, to render any dealing with se-
curities issued during the present war between Russia
and England by th Russian Government a misde-
meanour. It is recited that it is expedient to prevent
as much as possible the Russian Government from
raising funds for the purpose of prosecuting the war
which it at present carries on against this country, and
therefore it is proposed to prohibit the dealing in fina-
-1 sian debentures, loans, stock, scrip, or other securities,
otherwise the parties to be deemed guilty of a misde-
meanour, and liable to be imprisoned for a term of not
less than three months, and to pay a fine at the discre-
tion of the court.
THE RIFF PIRATES.—ADMIIIALTY, July 12, 1854.
Sir,—With reference to the recent acts of piracy which
have been committed on the Riff coast, I am commanded
by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to ac-
quaint you, for the information of the committee for
managing the affairs of Lloyd's, that her Majesty's
steam-sloop Prometheus has been again despatched to
that coast.—(Signed) R. B. OSBORNE. Captain G.
A. Halstead, R.N., Secretary, Lloyd's.
LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST RAILWAY.
The board of directors having had the accounts for the
past half-year submitted to them, have decided upon
recommending the payment of a dividend for the upon
recommending the payment of a dividend for the half.
year of 21. 6s. per cent. on the consolidated stock of the
company.

REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COM-
MITTEE ON PUBLIC-HOUSES.
The select committee of the House of Commons appointed
to examine into the system under which public-houses, coffee-
houses, and other places of public entertainment are now
regulated, have agreed to their report and laid it before the
house.

The committee, referring to the evidence which they have
taken, notice the great advantage which had been derived
by the public of Dublin from the opening on Sundays of
the grounds of the Zooliogcal Society, in the Plicenix
Park, at a charge of one penny for admission. Further
on the committee say- -" A working man living in the
neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace, states that there is
great drunkenness on Sunday night in the public-houses
at Norwood ; a great number of people come down to see
the building during the Sunday and stop at the public-houses,
where they get intoxicated, and make a great disturbance
during the evening. This is precisely what in the neighbour-
hood of Chatsworth used to happen during the period the
grounds remained closed, and from his experience on that
occasion, Sir Joseph Paxton apprehends persons going to see
the Crystal Palace would in the first place be too tired by
their exertions in going round it to have any inducement to
go to the public-houses to drink. Their wish would be to
take recreation and see the beautiful objects which the place
contains ; and when they had been there several hours, he
does not think there would be a tendency to stop and drink.
" The prevention to the admission of the public to the
Crystal Palace on Sunday arises from the act of George 11.,
which prohibits money from being taken for admission to any
place whatever on the Sunday; the act is evaded at several
music saloons, tea gardens, dec., by the sale of refreshment
tickets being made to cover a nominally free admission.
"Your committee cannot but remark upon the impolicy
of suffering the continuance of a law which is preventive only
to those who will not stoop to devices for its evasion, and
who, from the excellence of their object and the superiority
of their position should, of all others, be exempt from re-
strictions. The inconsistency that suffers the singing saloons
of Manchester and Liverpool, and Cremorne and the Eagle
Tavern gardens to be open on the Sunday, and shuts in the
face of all but the proprietors, and those who have free ad-
mission, to the gardens of the Zoological Society, and the
vast and varied school of secular instruction provided within
the grounds and building of the Crystal Palace, is too glaring
for continuance. There can be but few who will contend
that it better becomes a Christian observance of the Sunday
that people should be congregated, drunken and brawling,
outside the Crystal Palace, than that they should be en-
gaged in the contemplation of the thousand beautiful and
thought-exciting objects within its walls. But there are other places of public instruction, the complete
closing of which throughout Sunday seems to your
committee less excusable. The National Gallery, the
British and Geological Museums the exhibitions at Marl-
borough and Gore House, are paid for by the nation ; there
is not an individual, however poor, that in the consumption
of taxed products does not contribute his quota to the sup-
port of these institutions, and it therefore does not seem to
your committee a policy that admits of defence that these
places should be closed upon the only day that it is possible
for the majority of the population to visit them without seri-
ous loss. It is seldom possible for working men, or any con-
siderable part of the fully employed population, to visit the
National Gallery, the British Museum, or other national in-
stitutions, unless at the cost, to them a serious one, of a day's
wages. •
It is, however, objected that to have the several national
and other exhibitions open on the Sunday must of necessity
deprive the servants of those establishments of their day of
rest. Your committee are by no means satisfied that this
need be the case : there are numbers of persons who, if it
were open to them, would gladly, at a moderate remunera-
tion, volunteer their services for the Sunday after two o'clock,
the hour at which it is proposed that all such pla all be
ces shall
opened ; and your committee are not aware of
an difficulty in the way of a register, y erious
sof person so willing to
serve being kept at the several institutions, ors of their attend-
ing for a time as probationers, in order to make themselves
thoroughly conversant with the requisite duties, and it would
no the
consecutive Sundays." same persons should attend on
The report generally reviews the licensing system, and the
following are the