The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-14 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—What is the Metropolitan Board of Works
about ? Where is the great public instructor ?
and echo answers, where ? That Lord Derby and
Lord John Manners should continue to obstruct
our highways is only natural, for do they not boast
that they are Obstructives ? But what can be more
perfectly ridiculous than to open thoroughfares
with the one hand and block them up with the
other ? Piccadilly is one of the arteries of Lon-
don ; wide as it is, there is often too little room
for the present traffic, and that traffic must be
increased beyond all ordinary calculation when the
Pimlico Railway is open, leading, as it will do next
year, to the Crystal Palace, Brighton, Portsmouth,
and eventually to Southampton; Dover, Folke-
stone, and the continent, and yet Lord Derby
and Lord John Manners seriously propose to
block up this artery during the important months
of May and June by several hundred carriages
setting down, taking up, and waiting for the visi-
tors to the annual exhibition of the Royal Acade-
micians—and then the thousands of pedestrians
rushing to see the May sight of London ! Now,
this obstruction might be obviated in a great mea-
sure by giving the Academicians the land at the
side►—and I have yet to learn that one of our

most public thoroughfares is to be considered by
the Royal Academicians as essential to the commer-
cial success of their annual show. What ! have

they so little faith, either in the love of the people
for art, or in the merit of the pictures they exhibit,
as to believe there will be a great falling-off in
their receipts, unless, forsooth, they are located in
so public a thoroughfare as to tempt the occasional
lounger to pay his shilling ? I, at least, do not
form so mean an estimate, either 'of the pictures
themselves or the desire of the people to see them.
And then, the financial aspect ! The ground
cost the public £140,000 ; and the Royal Acade-
Micians propose to take half, which Lord Derby,
with a knowledge of Cocker truly gratifying to see
fin one of our rulers, says will, in fact, be a gift to
the Academicians of no less than X. 70,000. Indeed—
and well may he say so—this is no trifling sum with
our present expenditure. But this is so far
from' the sum which the Academicians have the
assurance to require as a gift, that it would be con-
siderably above £lOO,OOO. They want that half
which fronts Piccadilly, leaving (considerate souls !)
the back ground to the public ; and this front land
they have the assurance of estimating at only half
its cost to the public. No wonder they brought
down " the old man eloquent" to dazzle and delight
his hearers, by what in reality was nothing more
nor less than gulling the public into permitting
one of their most public thoroughfares to be incon-
veniently crowded, and estimating it was to give
the Academicians £70,000, when in reality it is
considerably above £lOO,OOO. Again, I ask, where,
oh, where, are our public instructors ?—lam, &c.
A REFORMER.
March 10, 1859.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN-ROAD.—
The number of patients relieved at this hospital, during the
week ending March 12, 1859, was 2,511, of which 688 were
new cases.