The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-24 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1870.

Metropolitan improvements worthy of their name
are not the rule but the exception. The reason for
this is that there is a divided authority. There is
the Board of Works with its chairmau. There is
the administrative department with its Chief Com-
missioner. Between Mr. AYRTON and Sir JOHN
THWAITES it is by a sort of happy-go-lucky touch
and go that good of any kind ever is secured to
London and Westminster. Even when the rival
forces are agreed, local vestries start up frequently
as obstructives. There is an illustration of this just
now in the proposal at last to sweep away those
hideous barracks at Knightsbridge. Preliminary
efforts are reasonably enough being made to arrange
about another site, not a hundred miles away, upon
which more commodious and salubrious barracks may
be erected. No sooner is there an inkling of this than
the locality thus threatened is up in arms to protest
against any such scheme in terms of unmeasured in-
dignation. 'twill be simply ontrageous if the authori-
ties allow themselves to be diverted from the carrying
out of their good intention simply because the in-
habitants of Chelsea do not take instantly to the
notion of erecting cavalry barracks in their
immediate neighbourhood. The metropolitan
suburbs are numerous enough and varied
enough in character to afford reasonable hope
that what to one may appear unacceptable, to
another may seem in every way desirable. Chel-
sea may regard itself, and with some show of reason,
as sufficiently well identified with the military interests
by being the home of the great Military Hospital
situated between the King's-road and the river side.
Any how the feelings of the inhabitants ought to be
consulted, and yet at the same time this project which
the men of Chelsea are averse to ought not, by reason
of that, to be abandoned or doomed to that virtual
abandonment, indefinite delay. The Knightsbridge
Barracks must be removed. The only difficulty
is to discover the most suitable place to which
they can be removed. If only our English /Edile
would show for one brief interval a little of
the courage of his convictions, if only he would
show the decision, boldness, promptitude, and auto-
cratic insistance of a HAUSSMANN ! We might then
not only see swept away at last completely that
great ugly, lumbering, unwholesome, grimy bar-
rack at Knightsbridge, but with it also, as an eye-
sore, that wretched little wedge of shallow houses
(known as, and for that matter called, Park Side)
tapering to a point immediately opposite the
Alexandra Hotel. We should simultaneously have
Holywell Street razed to the ground it pollutes—
thereby widening the narrow part of the Strand by
clearing away the miserable block of houses between
St. Mary-le-Stran d and St. Clement Danes. We should
no longer'behold strangled at Temple Bar the whole of
the enormous traffic to and fro between London and
Westminster. We should have that picturesque old
gate removed but a very little way from where it
now stands—looking no longer east and west, but
north and south, as an arched entrance into the
Temple immediately opposite Chancery-lane. We
should have the Law Courts commenced on the site
now, to no purpose, cleared into a ghastly ruinous
waste in the very middle of the metropolis. We
should have that disgraceful centre of Leicester-
square put at length into proper order.
And we should have such a rational improve-
ment carried out, instead of being merely talked
about, as the opening of a new thoroughfare between
Coventry-street and Oxford-street by the very
simple device of connecting Berwick-street with
Rupert-street in a straight line. For these and for a
multitude of similar improvements of a most desir
able character one would willingly deliver the
Metropolis up for a time into the hands of a
Dictatorial /Edile, even though he were as rash and
magnificent as the Baron HAUSSMANN.

THE Commemoration Week at Oxford is always
one of the treats of the summer season, and is
looked forward to with interest by those who are in
the habit of attending the brilliant scene. The
old University comes out to advantage on such
occasions, and blends the hallowed memories of
historic associations, with the more steady attributes
of modern manners. Since the commemoration
of last year the late distinguished CHANCELLOR of
the UNIVERSITY has passed away, leaving the
recollection of his great acquirements, and the
honour of his ancestral name as precions legacies to
the records of the classic city he loved. In this
changing scene the departing guest makes place for
the new arrival, and the Marquis of SALISBURY
accordingly graced the scene at Oxford, and took his
place as the new Chancellor of the University. This
distinguished honour falls to his share comparatively
early in life, but so far as ability and character could
influence the decision, the choice has not been an
unfitting one. Some of the incidents at the Sheldonian
Theatre are ♦ery significant of the state of public
feeling, and light words of jest spoken at random
often served to show the true state of the case
to many observers. An interesting incident in the
ceremony of conferring degrees was the introduc-
tion of the SPEAKER of the House of Commons.
Mr. LowE has certainly been endowed with the fatal
gift of bringing discord wherever he goes. Even
when he escapes from the turmoils of Parliament
and the strife of statesmanship to the classic shades
of the academic city, he is pursued by the demon of
misrule. No sooner had his name been pro-