The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-10 00:00:00

RIGHT OF WAY OVER PRIMROSE

HILL.
On Saturday, at the meeting of the Marylebone
Vestry (Mr. Churchwarden Daniell in the chair),
Mr. KENSETT said he wished to bring before the ves-
try a report of vast importance, inasmuch as it involved
the public right, which, in his opinion, had been in-
fringed upon. He was anxious to press this matter,
more particularly as this was the last day, after nine
years' service to the parish, that he should have the
honour of a seat in that vestry.—(Hear.) He had been
returned by the parochial committee by large majorities;
and, although it was a subject of much mental pain to
him, the great sacrifice he had made of his business
demanded that he should withdraw from public affairs.
Taking, as he had done, for nine years, a conspicuous
part in the debates of that vestry, it could not be ex-
pected but that he should come in contact with gentle-
' men possessing opposite opinions, and that, at times,
some asperity should exist between them, but he
sincerely trusted that he should part, whatever might
have been their differences, with every member of
the board that day with good feeling.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. Kensett proceeded at great length to eulogise the
conduct of the chairman and the vestry clerk, from
whom he had received the most marked atten-
tion and kind assistance in all he had undertaken for
the good of the parish, and he said he would con-
clude by leaving them as a legacy the following re-
port relative to an infringement on the public right.
Mr. Kensett here read the report of a committee, of
which he was chairman, appointed to inquire into a re-
cent infringement of the public right of way leading to
Primrose-hill from the Avenue-road. It set forth that
a foot-path and right of way, running from the south-
west to the north-east, and leading over a stile from the
Avenue-road to Primrose-hill, which path had been
known to exist for upwards of thirty years, is now
about to be closed by a Mr. Fry, a builder, who oc-
cupies under the Duke of Portland. The stile had
already been taken down, and a bank and hedge
planted. A granite stone, with the parish mark,
designating the boundary, had also been taken
up and laid at a distance from the spot where it ori-
ginally stood, the boundary line forming two-thirds of
the path thus stopped, and the public excluded from :tic-
' cess to Primrose Hill, which, by the benificence of the
Crown, had been recently purchased for the use of the
people in perpetuity. The Report proceeded to state
that the Committee considered that a violation of the
public right of way was about being carried into effect,
and it concluded by recommending that a deputation be
immediately 'appointed to wait upon the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests, to call upon them to enforce such
right being continued, in order that that place of recrea-
tion and health, Primrose Hill, may be preserved to the
public inviolate, and that the surveyor have the parish
boundary mark replaced in its original position, and that
the party moving it be charged with the expense.
Mr. BIERS seconded the adoption of the report. He
deeply regretted, as he was sure the entire vestry must
do, the loss of such a man as Mr. Kensett. In a ques-
tion of the present importance his services would be most
essential. Here was evidently a gross infringement about
to he attempted upon the rights of the public—a right
which, to his recollection, had existed for nearly forty
years. Primrose-hill had recently been purchased for
the public use and recreation by the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests, and One of the most important paths
leading thereto, namely, that which communicated with
Paddington, the Edgware-road, and Kilburn, wits in
course of being blocked up. He believed that under the
circumstances the best course that could be adopted was,
that they should call upon the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests to assist them in preventing this right of way
from belga; invaded. The public were themselves deeply
interested in this matter, and he hoped they would sup-
pi)rt the vestry and the Government in resisting any such
encroachment upon their rights,
Mr. Joslivit concurred in what had fallen from the
previous speakers. The stoppage of this thoroughfare
prevented access to Primrose Hill from all parts of West-
bourn and Avenue roads, and, in fact, shut out a lar[re
portikm of the inhabitants of Marylebone and the whole
of Pialdington from that place of public resort and re-
creation. without going round for a considerable distance
to the Hampstead or the S. Pancras side. He cor-
dially supported the proposition, and hoped that no time
would be lost, as the works were proceeding.
Mr. FOSTER. concur red in the repo-ft, and hoped that
the Government would take the matter up immediately,
in order to prevent a recurrence of such proceedings as
took place with regard to the Hippodrome—the people
in that instance having taken the law into their own
hands. Although not a memher of the vestry after that
v, he should like to see Mr. Elensett one of the depa-
tation.—(near.)
The motion wa s here put, and carried unanimously ;
and a deputatioa having bean appointed to wait upon
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests upon the sub-
set, the vestry separated.

COLOURED POPULATION OF
THE UNITED STATES.
REPORT OF TNE MAWAGRMENT OF THE STATE COLONIZA-
TION FUND FoR THE REMOVAL OF THE FREE PEOPLE

OF COLOUR.
Colonization Room., Baltimore, Jan. 20, 1841.
To his Excellency William Grason, Governor of Maryland.
The report of the undersigned, Managers of the State
Colonization Fund, under the Act of 1831, ek. 281,
respectfully stew that during the last year they have
drawn from the Treasury the sum of $lO,OOO, being the
amount limited by the Act of the Legislature of the bet
Session : a part of which hat been appropriated through
the agency of the Maryland State Colonization Society in
the payment of the expenses incurred in the transportation
of emigrants to Africa heretofore, and in maintaining them
there, as authorised by the Act abovr-mentioned ; and a
part in the dissemination of information through the State,
as also authorised by the same Act. The number of ma-
numissions during during the past year has been 128,
making the whole number since the passage of the Act
2,300. During the past year no emigrants have been sent
from the State to Africa ; the current of feeling among
the free coloured population having turned their attention
to the British West India Islands, and diverted it wholly
for the present for other quarters. The undersigned be-
lieve, from the event i of the last twelve months, that the
feeling is increasing among the free coloured people that
this is not their appropriate home, and that sooner or later
emigration to other lands will be to their happiness and
well-being. Hitherto they have remained in the United
Statna with the belief that by preserving here their num-
bers undiminished. they would ultimately obtain social
and political equality with the whites. This has been the
abolition doctrine that has spread among them, and by
which they have been influenced heretofore. It is be-
lieved now, however, to have lost its weight in a great
measure, and there is a restlessness among the thinking
and prudent of the free coloured people which indicates a
thorough change in their feelings with reference to re-
moval. That emigration to tlie British West Indies will long
continue in favour, the undersigned cannot believe, for the
persons wanted there are labourers for the sugar crops
—a species of toil to which the negroes from Maryland
arc unaccustomed, and in which they must be brought
into competition with the emancipated slaves of the island,
whenever these last choose to return to the habits of labour
from which their emancipation has released them. The
undersigned mention this in no hostility to emigration of
the free coloured people to Trinidad and Guiana, but as indi-
cating a probable result which, under any circumstances, it
would be prudent to provide for, and which has been most
fully provided for in the establishment of the colony of
Maryland in Liberia, whose prosperity and success thus
far is believed to be without a parallel in the whole history
of colonization. This colony is now capable of receiving
all the persona that may choose to emigrate to it ; and
when the restless feeling among the coloured population
already alluded tc, becomes disappointed in the results of
the West India scheme, will furnish an alternative by
which it can be gratified, in a manner promotive, not only
of their beat interests, but of the beat interests of the
pewle of Maryland from whom they will go forth.
In the year 1720 there were 8,043 free negroea in
Maryland • the late census shows that there are 17,980 in
the city of Baltimore alone, and 61,937 in the State of
Maryland. This population, which is among us, but not
of us—which has no interest in common with us—which is
debarred political and social rights, and which can antiei-
pnte no change for the better, may be well dissatisfied with
their position, and look abroad for a more congenial home,
It is the part of a rise policy to provide one. This has
been done ; and, however the free coloured people may for
a while vacillate in the selection of their permanent abiding
place, there is little doubt that tbey will ultimately prefer
removing to a place where the coloured man fills all the
offices in the government rather than to a place where
their removal still leaves them under the predominant in-
fluences of a white population, in which the coloured man
is trusted with power not as his right, but as a favour.
The condition of the coloured population is of great in-
terest, and the undersigned see nothing yet to induce thorn
to doubt the policy of the State in relation to it.
The undersigned transmit hereaith a copy of the Ninth
Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Maryland
State Colonizaticn Society, being the lest they have issued,
which is fully explanatory of their plans and policy ; and
C.
have the honour to be, most respectfully,
HOWARD.